This archive report was first published on 10 November 2019.
China's sneaker market has become a hotbed of speculation, with enthusiasts and investors alike fueling a bubble in high-priced sneakers.
According to Chinese tech consultancy iiMedia Research, the annual trading volume on platforms like Poizon has reached 15 billion yuan, more than triple the volume of StockX, a leading US platform.
Platforms like Poizon and Nice have attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in investment from foreign and domestic venture capital, according to Chinese media reports.
But the craze has not gone unnoticed by authorities. The Shanghai branch of the central People's Bank of China issued a warning last month about the financial risks of excessive sneaker speculation.
Despite the warning, the phenomenon continues to grow. Liu Xingfeng, a 23-year-old Chinese student at a university in Australia, has made a significant profit from buying and selling sneakers, with an estimated monthly net profit of 50,000 yuan.
"The sneaker market hype has benefited me a lot," said Liu.
However, not everyone is a fan of the commodification of sneaker culture. Wang Yue, 21, considers himself a sneaker purist and has a collection of over 200 pairs of sneakers worth hundreds of thousands of yuan.
"I'm really annoyed that I have to pay more for a normal pair of basketball shoes now," he said.
