Today in adventures on the sneaker resale market, some particularly ambitious sellers have begun listing their pre-orders for Virgil Abloh's Louis Vuitton x Nike Air Force 1.
The monumental collaboration, fêted with a sprawling exhibition in New York City and a series of pubic installations, released to select Louis Vuitton clients earlier this month. Judging from unboxing videos posted to social media, these lucky VIPs are now receiving the coveted drop in-hand — and, as evidenced by listings on StockX and eBay, they're wasting no time in flipping the sneakers for massive profit.
While Louis Vuitton priced the shoes between €2,000 and €2,500 (approximately $2,085 to $2,605), StockX sellers are peddling them for $11,699 at the low end, and $100,000 at the highest. On eBay, listings for the kicks range anywhere from $18,500 to a whopping $279,999 — comparable to prices the sneakers fetched at Sotheby's auction in February.
It's not entirely surprising that the ultra-luxurious AF1s have already hit the resale market. After all, the blockbuster collab is one of Louis Vuitton's final Abloh-designed drops, cementing it in fashion history lore.
Still, there's something slightly off-putting about customers buying Abloh's posthumous release with the sole intention of selling it for profit. I don't fault anyone for wanting to make a buck (or 200,000), but Abloh was all about democratizing design. Reselling the shoes for hundreds of thousands of dollars makes them totally inaccessible to the bulk of his core fan base: young streetwear enthusiasts.
Of course, the sneakers (and anything released by Louis Vuitton) were never accessible to begin with — they're luxury products, and luxury will always come at a cost.
If you're set on snagging a pair of Louis Vuitton x Nike Air Force 1s, to keep or to sell, the collab will release to the public later this month. Godspeed!
