A new semi-regular dispatch that sheds light on the universe of culture and commerce.
As much as we love to talk about ghosts, our interests do extend beyond our own collectible toys. And so, from time to time, we’d like to share our thoughts on the wider world of collectibles, drops, hype – whatever we’re feeling at the moment. “What are you feeling Lance? 40 weight? 50 weight”. Wait…sorry, wrong content series.
Each semi-regular dispatch will spotlight a new product, or old product, or new story, or old story, that sheds light on this broader universe of culture and commerce.
The Nike Galaxy Foamposite Returns
On February 21st, Nike retro’d the Galaxy Foamposite One – the sneaker that changed the course of history when it first came out in 2012.
We could write an entire book about the 2012 Galaxy Foam drop – in fact, we literally are. Without that drop, StockX wouldn’t exist…which means ghostwrite wouldn’t exist…which means this email wouldn’t exist. (Check out Boardroom’s new oral history for more on that story).
But for the purposes of this email, we just want to reflect on how dramatically things have changed in the last thirteen years.
2012: The drop sold out and it was absolute chaos. Cops were breaking up riots at campouts. Someone placed a $70,000 bid for the Foams on eBay. Someone else offered their car for a pair on Craiglist. Professional economists would call it “market friction”. We would call it “a total shitshow”.
2025: The drop sold out again, but in every other respect, it went totally smoothly. A ton of sneakerheads took Ls, but the ones who missed out – they went right over to StockX and bought a pair for market price, which right now is hovering around $400.
Access and Convergence
The difference between the 2012 Galaxy drop and the 2025 Galaxy illustrates two massive, world-historical hype economy trends.
ACCESS HAS INCREASED. Today, when a hype sneaker drops, every sneakerhead knows they’ll have access – even if they miss on the drop. Even if access is blocked on the primary market (the drop sells out), it will be open on StockX.
Sure, the 2025 Galaxy retro release featured exponentially more supply. But it also featured exponentially more demand: there are WAY more sneakerheads competing for a drop today, compared to 13 years ago. The difference, today, is access.
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY MARKETS HAVE CONVERGED. Today, there are two places to buy a sneaker on drop-day. Retail and resell have converged. Secondary markets have been normalized. You can cop on SNKRS or you can cop on StockX – the only difference is price.
Of course if you ask us, that last difference – between retail and market price – shouldn’t be a difference, either. But that’s a topic for another day…
Grab Bag
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