Since the pandemic started hitting the country almost a year ago, large national shoe resellers with physical stores like StockX, GOAT, Flight Club, and Stadium Goods have shuttered. These are the kinds of stores where you would see pictures of people waiting in long lines to get the first chance at buying the latest releases.

Sneakerhead culture, however, continues to thrive during the pandemic thanks to the network of online shoe exchanges and resellers that already existed. Online retailers like StockX and GOAT have been able to withstand the pandemic with relatively few bumps in the road.

“We are fortunate to have diversified our offerings over the years with digital and brick and mortar presences, along with supporting both the resale and primary markets,” a GOAT spokesman said.

For StockX, there was an initial four-percent decline in the prices of their top 500 sneakers when the lockdown started, according to company Senior Economist Jesse Einhorn. Now, after re-measuring the data in June, there has been a six-percent price increase over the past four months. Most online shoe retailers had a decrease in sales when the lockdown started and it affected sales. Most places did because that was when everyone took it seriously. Nothing like this had ever happened so everyone stayed home for a couple of weeks but, after a while, everyone kind of forgot about it.

It affected a lot of small businesses making sales go down and forcing some to only do business online for their own safety and the safety of others. Other examples are Online groups selling shoes. Before the pandemic there were already groups on Facebook, on the market place or even dedicated groups, one example is the Atx Shoe exchange. There are many similar groups like that on Facebook where people can post their shoes and other people who are interested in them can meet up and purchase them. There are no online orders or shipping because of the worry of getting scammed, and there are moderators in the group keeping track of scammers. Before the pandemic, you would just message the person and meet up wherever to purchase shoes. But some people are more careful than others and may ask to meet up with facemasks and sanitizer and to place the shoes somewhere and the money too. to keep a social distance.

Most online businesses like Stock X and goat are doing good because most of their selling was already done online. And most other retailers have switched to online making it safer for them. One store that still does in-person releases is supreme. but they have their own system to avoid many people going in the store, they give out tickets with numbers on them and have people leave and come back when their number is called to the shop, to keep a low number of customers in the store at all times.

Another way that StockX and GOAT have weathered the lockdown storm is that they feature other products outside of sneakers on their respective sites. Apparel, collectibles, and accessories have received a bump in price points due to more people practicing social distancing and staying home.