Kicks for the soul

Over in China, the app Poizon ranks among the most popular e-commerce channels for sneaker purchase and authentication. Besides shoes, users can also find streetwear, watches, mobile phones and even toys. Other sneaker sites include Nice and UFO, a platform launched in December 2018 by Chinese streetwear fashion group Yoho!. UFO raked in more than 1 million yuan in sales revenue on the day of its launch.

To sneakerheads, authentication is crucial because it is hard to tell the fakes from the real products these days. In fact, even authenticators at Poizon have been duped before, according to Chinese portal Jiemian.

Some of the things sneakerheads look out for when verifying a pair of shoes are the quality of the box and whether the SKU (stock-keeping unit) number on the box matches the one inside the shoes. The most obvious sign of a fake, according to sneakerheads, is the price. Those being sold for significantly lower than the market rate are almost always fakes.

Being knowledgeable of the sneaker scene and not falling prey to hype also helps, notes Zhu.

"There is no such thing as an Adidas Yeezy x Off-White collaboration but you'll find such fake shoes on the market," he says.