Sneaker Bots Are Dead: How To Increase Your Chances Of Getting Hyped Sneakers
With kids like Nikes Ex-VP Ann Heberts son using bots to buy up every single popular shoe from Jordan to Yeezy, how do you stand a chance?
Its nearly impossible to get a pair of Jordan 1s these days. Dont get me started on Nike SB Dunks. With SNKRS handing out Ls left and right, theres barely a chance for the commoner to win the chance to buy a shoe. You may have already noticed that hyped sneaker raffles are starting to take off. Youll see some of the biggest shoe and clothing retailers starting to participate in these events too UNDFTD, KITH, END, and tons of smaller skate stores. The key is to take advantage of these opportunities that just werent there for you before. With so many raffles, and even more people entering, how do you win?
Provides You With Regular Updates
While some people might prefer just to set and forget, the thing about bots these days is that they can quickly become outdated. One way to make sure that your sneaker bot is doing a good job even months later is if it can provide you with regular updates.
This is how the bot can adapt to changes and developments in technology so that it can bypass anything that is getting in the way of it doing its job. Most bot companies will offer their updates for free, while some will make you pay for it.
The Best Sneaker Bots For Mac
Due to popular demand, weve added a tab dedicated to Mac sneaker bots. There are multiple workarounds to run unsupported bots: Bootcamp, virtual OS, or remote server. But here are some options if you prefer your bot to work natively:
- Splashforce a great Adidas bot thats also an all-in-one.
- Project Destroyer a very versatile bot that requires some experience.
- AIO Bot a battle-tested all-in-one bot that you can actually buy from its website.
- Nike Shoe Bot a consistently successful AIO bot that runs everything but Nike .
- Dashe a cheap Mac sneaker bot for cooking on Shopify and Supreme.
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How To Choose The Right Sneaker Bot
If you want the best chance of getting your dream sneakers, then you need to know how to choose the best sneaker bot. While there are a lot of sneaker bots out there, not all of them are going to be well suited to your needs.
Lets take a look at some of the things you need to consider when choosing the right sneaker bot.
What Is A Sneaker Raffle
In a sneaker raffle, shoppers enter a contest to win the right to buy a pair of sneakers. Sneaker raffles operate differently from a fundraising raffle, where people pay to enter the contest and, if someones entry is chosen, he or she wins the prize for free.
To run a sneaker raffle, a retailer collects all entries, either in-person or electronically. Then they choose one or several entries at random to decide who gets to buy the sneakers within a timeframe.
Most raffles require pickup at an in-person location, though some will ship the winners their shoes without in-person verification.
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How Do You Decide On The Best Sneaker Bot
So, as we mentioned above, there are many different sneaker bots out there these days to choose from, which makes it pretty difficult to choose just one. However, it all comes down to what youre trying to get out of using a bot.
Are you hoping to make more than one purchase so that you can sell the sneakers on? What are your general goals?
Once you know everything about what youre hoping to get from using a bot, then you will be able to decide on the best option for you. With this in mind, lets take a look at what we think are the best sneaker bots out there in the industry right now that can make a real difference to your sneaker purchases.
Virtual Credit Card Profiles
There are numerous ways to get your hands on credit cards for sneaker bots.
For starters, you can rely on virtual credit cards. This is a feature that most modern credit card providers have, which allows you to make an unlimited number of virtual cards that all source back to your own personal card.
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Status Sneakers And The Swoosh Curve
For most of the 20th century, sneakers were considered little more than utilitarian footwear for sports. But that changed dramatically in the 1980s, in large part because of Nikes Air Jordan. The original Jordans came out in red, black and white so defiantly different from other sneakers at the time that the National Basketball Association fined Michael Jordan for breaking its uniformity of uniform rule.
The original Jordans and subsequent models ushered in a new era. Sneakers were no longer bland shoes with extra padding and rubber soles they were fashion accessories and expressions of identity. It wasnt long before sneakers became a collectors item starting in the early 2000s when Nike released Dunks, originally a basketball shoe, in limited quantities at independent skateboarding shops, such as FTC in San Francisco and Uprise in Chicago.
Nike often collaborated with skaters, designers and streetwear brands such as Supreme, which elevated the SB Dunks into a status symbol. Each release had a unique look, back story and catchy nickname that made the shoe feel more exclusive. For example, the so-called Tiffany dunks featured a turquoise color that resembled the boxes of the famed jeweler.
The Swoosh Curve
2021
Jesse Einhorn, a senior economist at StockX, said the Swoosh curve reflects supply-and-demand dynamics and ultimately the upward pressure on sneaker prices as fewer unworn so-called deadstock or sold out pairs remain.
What Are Sneaker Bots
So, what are we talking about when we say the phrase sneaker bot? Were talking about a pretty complicated piece of software that has been developed to help its users purchase sneakers that are limited edition as soon as they come out.
Once the sneakers have been released on the companys website, the fight to get your hands on a pair is fierce. This is what makes the chances of actually being able to buy your favorite sneaker really low.
Because you are fighting against other humans to get your hands on a pair, then having a bot on your side is going to give you an edge. Bots can click faster, and they can also send requests faster than humans, which means that even if you have a lot of competition, you will easily be able to beat it.
This is why there are many sneaker enthusiasts out there who make the most of a sneaker bot when limited-edition sneakers come out that they want.
Because sneaker bots are so sought after, they usually go for a pretty penny. Of course, how much you pay for a sneaker bot is going to depend on what features they offer.
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What Is Sneaker Botting
In essence, sneaker botting is the process of using a bot to purchase sneakers. Even though this trend started off for sneakers only, as the bots became more advanced, they were able to make purchases for other items as well.
The bots are automated software that carries out the purchasing process automatically and do that much faster than any human would. Sneaker bots come in a variety of applications and each offering a different set of features and supported sites. Some are designed to work with one site, while others with multiple we will go in greater detail later in the guide.
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Stop The Sneaker Bots & Bring Back Fairness To Sneaker Drops
Many sneakerheads relate to the below Twitter user when he wrote:
Sneakerheads feel like they need a bot to have any shot at copping sneakers on the primary market.
And theyre not wrong.
Bots provide the fuel for the secondary market and their sky-high prices. All this has understandably strained retailers and brands’ relationships with their real customers.
At Queue-it, we believe its possible to keep sneaker releases in the 21st century while ensuring shoes get in the hands of true sneakerheads.
Online sneaker sales have many advantages compared with in-store or raffle salesbut only if bots are under control.
Unfortunately, legislation isnt likely to help any time soon.
So to keep the bots truly at bay, you need a best-in-breed, combined bot mitigation solution. Crafting a tailored strategy to mitigate unique attack vectors before, during, and after the sneaker drops gives you the best chance of achieving successful, bot-free sneaker sales.
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Supports More Than One Account
Of course, if you are a die-hard sneakerhead, then youre not just going to stop at purchasing one pair of sneakers. There is no doubt that you will purchase more in the future, and if this is the case, then you will need a bot that can support more than one account.
This is why its important to choose a bot that can support more than one account.
Choosing A Sneaker Proxy
Most of the top sneaker bot services have similar features. Spend some time asking around on forums and reading reviews to get an idea of which you want to go with. Picking a sneaker proxy, on the other hand, is a bit more complex.
Pick a proxy provider with a large IP pool. The more countries their IP addresses cover, the better. Dont forget to make sure that they let you choose your location! Some proxy providers assign an address randomly from their pool. If you want to get a pair of sneakers that are exclusive to the UK buyers, you dont want to connect with a proxy located in India.
Look into the background of the proxy company. Is it an actual company? If it is, that means its a legal entity and liable for any personal data leaks or misused information. This means they have a legal responsibility to keep your data secure.
Dont forget to check forums and review sites for user opinions. Proxy users tend to jump from one service to another in search of a really good one. If users tend to stick with a company for a long time, thats an indicator that its reliable and secure.
In reviews, one essential thing to look for information about proxy speed. To make sure that your money doesnt go to waste, you have to invest very carefully into proxies that are confirmed to be extremely speedy.
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What Are The Best Sneaker Bots
There are a couple of bot types and bots names you must know about when going into the sneaker reselling market.
There are going to be Shopify bots, Nike bots, Adidas bots, Footsites bots, Supreme bots, and Yeezy Supply bots.
The best bots for these sites are going to be Cybersole AIO, Balkobot, Splashforce, Polaris, MEKPreme, VeloxPreme, Wraith, and Nike Shoe Bot.
The best and most popular sneaker bots occasionally restock, and due to the unprecedented demand, they sell out in seconds.
We tapped a UK-based sneaker bot developer who chose to remain anonymous, to ask what hes doing to stay ahead of retailers and brands.
I dont think that retailers can win this cat and mouse game of anti-bot protection. I put it down to 2 main factors:
Firstly, it is expensive and time-intensive for retailers and brands to attempt patching the plethora of sneaker bots out there.
Secondly, where there is demand, theres money and a way around.
Right now, theres crazy money to be made in the botting industry. See for example the developers of Cyber bot, boasting that their users collectively spent over 30 million dollars in the last year.
Personally, I dont recommend buying all-in-one bots. Thats because they dont really work.
Why? Well, theres no bot that supports every site.
The sellers will market these bots as fully compatible with all sites but, because all sites change so much so fast, the developers cant keep up.
Simply put, people use bots to buy bots.
Bodega Meets Its Match
It wasnt like this when Bodega opened in Boston in 2006. The store had no website, so anticipation for major releases was built in person, said Mr. Gordon, who owns the store with Oliver Mak and Dan Natola. Sneakerheads would travel from New York and Montreal and wait in long lines to get the latest design.
About 10 years ago, the owners thought it was becoming unsafe to have shoppers camp out overnight in front of the store, so major releases moved online. It was before the bots arms races, said Mr. Gordon, so Bodega allowed people to buy sneakers online on a first-come, first-served basis.
For years, Bodega put up with the bots and did what it could to mitigate their impact. But after the 2019 New Balance release, Bodega decided it needed to be more proactive or it risked losing ordinary customers who felt that the game was rigged.
Bots are not illegal, nor are they exclusive to the sneaker industry. They are used to obtain anything in high demand with limited supply. During the pandemic, people amassed stockpiles of video game consoles, graphics chips and even childrens furniture using bots. For Shopify, the Canadian e-commerce giant behind dozens of the buzziest sneaker boutiques , protecting against a bot onslaught is a part of keeping sites up and running.
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The Bot Problem Is Getting Worse And Nike Has The Only Answer
Not long ago, Newcastle-based streetwear retailer END. Clothing revealed its intentions to stand fast on the front lines of the war against bots, with its new “Launches” system that was touted as bot-proof. The announcement was widely covered across the blogosphere, including here on the e-pages of Highsnobiety, as the latest in a string of bulletins signaling a call to arms within the retail industry.
In the past year or so, brands as well as retailers have been rallying against the use of bots during online sneaker releases, not limited to Supreme, Nike, adidas and other smaller retailers. The battle is waging on, and while sneakerheads are often S.O.L. when release day comes around, stores and brands are still seeing their stock fly off shelves faster than is humanly possible.
Bots Made Easy
To understand why this is happening, we first need to understand what a bot is and how it works.
First, some websites already write their own “bot code of some sort. Used as a programming tool for quality-assurance purposes, this is known as acceptance testing. These bots are operated internally by the online stores themselves to run a suite of tests every time the site’s code is updated, making sure the store is running in top shape.
The Bot Plot Thickens
Nike Leading the Way
Denial Of Inventory Bots
Ever wonder how youll see sneakers listed on secondary markets like StockX or eBay before the kicks even drop? Denial of inventory bots are to blame.
A perfect example of the sophisticated, next-gen bots, these bots add sneakers to online shopping carts and hold them there. They dont buy themat least not initially.
Holding sneakers in the cart denies other shoppers the chance to buy them. Often, discouraged sneakerheads will turn to resale sites and pay double or triple the MSRP to get what they couldnt on the retailers site.
Only when a shopper buys the product on the resale site will the bot operator have the bot complete the purchase.
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Missed Connection With True Customers
Many sneakerheads dont have access to shoes at those price points. When theyre forced to buy on a secondary marketplace, your brandmissesa crucialopportunity to connect with a real human customer and establish a strong, ongoing relationship. Bots dont take part in upselling. They dont return later to buy products from a brand they love. And they dont evangelize your brand to friends and family.
How To Beat The Sneaker Bots: Get A Sneaker Proxy
Some people think that if you dont use a bot, you dont need a proxy, but that isnt true. If you want to buy a large number of sneakers, you are going to need a proxy. Otherwise, you will have to follow the limits imposed by the sneaker sites. That might mean you are only able to get a single pair of sneakers. It is critical that you buy a proxy that was specifically made for copping sneakers. Sneaker proxies are located near the sneaker sites datacenters so you wont have to worry about long lag times slowing you down. Instead, you will be able to jump right in and start buying sneakers. It is also a good idea to buy a large number of proxies. Dont make the mistake of going with a single proxy. You need to buy a lot of proxies so you can assign each one to a different account. Then, you will be able to add sneakers to your shopping cart and check out without any issues.
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Monitor & Identify Traffic
If you cant measure it, you cant improve it. So, if you dont have tools to monitor and identify sneaker bot traffic, youll never stop it.
Professional bot mitigation platforms analyze behavioral indicators like mouse movements, frequency of requests, and time-on-page to identify suspicious traffic. For example, if a user visits several pages without moving the mouse, its most likely a bot.
Bot mitigation solutions help identify sneaker bots with digital fingerprinting. They look at known information like browser type, IP address, cookies, browser extensions, and so on to create a profile of users that can be flagged as suspicious.
Remember to look for bot mitigation solutions that monitor traffic across all channelsweb site, mobile apps, and APIs. Sneaker bots can plug directly into retailers APIs to access products more quickly. You need to cover all entry points.
Finally, the best bot mitigation platforms use machine learning to constantly update to the threats on your specific web application. In the cat-and-mouse game of bot mitigation, your playbook cant be based on last weeks attack.
