Is StockX Legit? Uncovering The Truth Through Customer Reviews

The sneaker resale market is one of the biggest markets in the world. Not only has it become one of the best ways to get your hands on the sneakers you are looking for, but it has become a global market. There are a couple of industry favourites when it comes to sneaker resale sites, and one of them is, without a doubt, StockX. But is StockX legit? Are you safe shopping there as a pre-owned sneaker enthusiast? Let’s dive into the world of StockX and find out.

Sneaker Resale Market

If you are new to sneaker resale or sneakers in general, you might not know how big of a market it is. I had some idea of how big the sneaker resale world was but needed to truly understand the scale of it, so I looked to the experts to understand.

In August 2023, Sheena at Run Repeat gathered a report that compiled the latest Sneaker Resale Statistics. While plenty of it was speculative, dependent on carefully constructed projections based on trends and transactions in the past, the data suggested that “The used sneaker market will enjoy a compound annual growth rate of 16.4%, reaching $53.2 billion in total sales to cap 2023.”

I don’t blame you if you aren’t here for the statistics mambo jumbo, but the point is that $53.2 billion is a lot of money! Further on in Sheena’s analysis of the data, they mention, “the sneaker resale market is responsible for at least 6% of the global secondhand apparel and resale industry”, an industry that is larger than anyone would have imagined, having been valued at $177 billion in 2022.

The sneaker and resale markets tend to grow and shrink hand in hand. You might wonder why we need a market like this or how it has grown so big. When Nike, Jordan Brand, adidas Yeezy, or even Reebok creates their sneakers for retail purchase, these sneakers can sell for anywhere between $90 and possibly max out at $500 or more, depending on what kind of sneakers you are getting.

That doesn’t sound so bad or like grounds for the resale market to be as big as it is.

Usually, when something is made from firsthand to secondhand markets, the value decreases because the buyer isn’t the original owner. The sneaker resale market is one of the few instances where the opposite happens. Because of various factors, such as the sneakers being released in limited quantities, demand is high because the sneakers were worn by or collaborated on by a favourite or controversial celebrity, etc. Suddenly, you have a pair of sneakers that retailed for a couple hundred dollars when they first arrived and are now worth a couple thousand dollars.

Of course, the only thing scarier than dropping a couple thousand dollars on a pair of sneakers is the possibility that they aren’t real. This is where checking the platform you are buying from or verifying the sneakers comes in.

What is StockX?

StockX is one of the world’s leading resale platforms and online marketplaces known for providing consumers with options for getting their hands on “the world’s most coveted items”. The site was founded in 2015 by co-founders Greg Schwartz, Dan Gilbert, Josh Luber, and Chris Kaufman. The site is based in Detroit, Michigan but also has international offices around the world in locations like London and the Netherlands and drop-off points in locations like New York. StockX is reported to have more than 800 employees around the world, some of which are part of a verification team at their verification centers, while others form the StockX customer service department.

While they are known for their extensive stock of pre-owned or coveted sneakers, they also sell apparel items like handbags, electronics, collectables you can’t find anywhere else, accessories, trading cards, and any item that has held some form of social significance over the years like luxurious labels and coveted brands.

StockX is one of the first retailers to pop up when searching for your favourite sneakers, especially when those kicks aren’t available on their original online retailer anymore. So how did StockX become one of the most widely known retailers of coveted items?

For starters, when anything moves through the StockX site, according to their About page, the items go through a vigorous verification process with their team of experts. Hence, they try their best and use multiple methods to make sure that what you are buying is legitimate. That isn’t to say that things don’t slip through the cracks.

StockX is not only a resource for finding the sneakers you are looking for but also one that shares real-time and historic bids for what you are looking at. It means that the site protects buyers from spending an exorbitant amount of money on a pair of sneakers that aren’t worth that much or have no reason to set the asking price too high. It also helps sellers find a fair price for their sneakers that still benefits them in the long run.

With a market that is as quickly fluctuating as sneakers and only growing over time, this can benefit many buyers.

The Sneaker Resale Boom

In 2023, Complex released an in-depth article on a well-known scandal where a buyer who was using StockX bought a bunch of sneakers, and when they arrived, the sneakers proved to be fake. While they boast having one of the best verification processes, “as one of the first and best in the industry,” and shared with Complex that they had rejected more than 330,000 products in 2022 alone, somehow all 38 of these buyer’s sneakers had managed to slip through the cracks.

Now, this isn’t to say that StockX is a scam or that every sneaker you can purchase on there is a fake, but a single buyer realising that more than half of the sneakers they purchased are fake is a pretty big deal. The buyer was also pulled into a lawsuit between Nike and StockX.

This situation happened in 2022 during the sneaker resale boom after the COVID-19 pandemic hit. With many people sitting at home without a job, sneakerheads turned to the market that they knew and loved to make some money and support their families. Suddenly, the market was flooded with sellers and buyers who had the time to dedicate their full attention.

Although StockX has a system in place that puts items being sold on their site through a stringent verification process, It is still a site that allows almost anyone to become a buyer and seller of coveted stock on their site. Like eBay, Etsy, and Depop, you can be someone special to be able to sell your products on the site.

StockX has maintained a good track record of ensuring that its products are verified; there is, and will always be, room for error. To understand whether StockX is legit or not, the best thing you can do besides try it for yourself is to look at the testimony of other sneakerheads who have bought from the site, so let’s take a look at some of the reviews.

StockX Reviews

counterfeit Nike sneakers — Counterfeit Nike Sneakers

Where do you go to check reviews on sites you are considering using? Some of the most common places are sites like Trustpilot, Sitejabber, Reddit, and even leaving reviews on the site itself.

The good thing about sites like these is that they can verify companies as legitimate or not, have all of the reviews in one place, and give you an overall rating of what the people using those sites have experienced.

On Trustpilot, StockX has a 4.2-star overall rating with over 130,000 reviews, making it seem pretty legit. All in all, I’d call that good going. Other sites like Sitejabber also provide an overall view, like a 3.69-star overall rating with over 2,000 reviews, as well as a quick description of customer experience:

“Most customers are generally satisfied with their purchases. Reviewers satisfied with StockX most frequently mention fast delivery, perfect condition, and great experience.” The site even offers a ranking, suggesting that the online retailer ranks 17^th among shoe sites.

The good thing about these sites is that they can’t be moderated by StockX to give buyers looking at reviews only the best reviews the way that information like that could be moderated through Google reviews or reviews on their site. But one place that really can’t be moderated by the site is Reddit.

Let’s look at some of the good and bad experiences that sneakerheads have had on these sites.

The Good

StockX has a pretty good rating on Trustpilot, with an overwhelming 66% of the reviews on the site being 5-star, really positive.

One of the most recent reviews on Trustpilot tells of an experience as recent as February 28^th, 2024. The buyer was happy with the delivery time and their experience on the site. They mentioned that if their next purchase goes as smoothly as the first, they will use StockX exclusively to build their shoe collection.

Another user first lamented that sneaker prices have risen to a point where they are basically unobtainable for the average person before sharing that StockX is an excellent place for the average person to obtain great streetwear sneakers at a fair price.

Lastly, a user who was using StockX for the first time was grateful for the information that StockX shares about real-time and historical bids, as well as questions that other buyers have had because they felt it made them feel equipped to make an informed purchase and gave them more confidence in what they were doing. Overwhelmingly, the good experiences on StockX resulted in those reviewers saying they would return to the online store.

Reddit is notoriously a place where users go to vent their problems. Still, surprisingly, there are a lot of excellent comments on their experience with StockX, saying that the site is legit, their purchase was good, they’ve never had a problem with customer service, and they would happily return to the site. Of course, for every good example, there is usually a bad that accompanies it.

The Bad

With all the good, there will inevitably be a little wrong in there. Using the same format for analysis we have been using, Trustpilot indicates that the second highest demographic for reviews after 5-star is at the bottom, with 17% of their buyers and sellers having had a 1-star experience.

One of the biggest complaints on Trustpilot is about StockX’s return policy. The user didn’t get what they expected and said they could do nothing about it because they didn’t check the return policy before buying. This happened to many customers trying to return products that came late or were different from what they expected. Still, because anyone can buy and sell on StockX, returns aren’t a process they can litigate. We highly recommend reading all of the policies before purchasing on any site so that you know exactly what you are getting yourself into.

Another review on Trustpilot came from a prospective seller who wanted to have their goods authenticated, saying that while their product was in excellent condition despite being from an old collection, the team at StockX basically destroyed it when sending it back after saying that it wasn’t acceptable to sell on their site.

Finally, a Reddit user posted a comment on the r/stockx subreddit that went into detail about their experience with StockX, saying that despite the authentication process, every pair of sneakers they had bought from the site had arrived with cosmetic defects, had been poor quality compared to legitimate sneakers straight from Nike, and even going as far as to accuse the retailer of selling junk. The same comment had further comments saying that users who had used the site more than 40 times hadn’t had a single problem.

So, Is StockX Legit?

The world of buying and selling on the Internet is a tricky one. Where there is a lot of good, there is also a lot of bad, and every buyer and seller’s experience is bound to be different. It would be great if there was a site out there that was perfect and no one has ever had an issue with it, but the reality of the situation is that there are people behind everything, and people make mistakes.

Whether someone had a bad day, lied about the quality and authenticity of their product and it somehow made it through the quality assurance process, or got damaged in the delivery process to a customer, there is always bound to be a problem. That being said, the good outweighs the bad regarding StockX and its legitimacy.

For every person who has had a bad experience, there are 20 who have had a good experience. For every pair of counterfeit goods that have somehow made it through the authentication process, there are 30 that have been sent away and kept off the resale market.

Overall, I wouldn’t call it a mixed bag because the good outweighs the bad, but buyers and sellers should be savvy when using any online marketplace. There are always bound to be problems, and the hope is that the problem or unforeseeable factors don’t affect you in particular; it can sometimes happen.

StockX has a strict and lengthy process to keep the products that move through them legit, and customer service tries to be as helpful as possible while wrangling their anonymous sellers. Still, at the end of the day, they are a site that acts as an in-between for buyers and sellers, and there is only so much that they can do in that in-between space.

If you have any personal experience with StockX, we’d love to know your opinion and whether you think StockX is legit or not in the comments below. Otherwise, stay sharp out there in this growing sneaker world.