Buying sneakers in 2016 is a headache. If you're trying to get a pair of shoes that's remotely sought after, your experience will likely involve website crashes, long lines, and raffle tickets giving you a false sense of hope that maybe you'll emerge with your size. Sneaker brands and stores have sought to innovate and fix this process, experimenting with new ways of delivering coveted footwear to consumers. Foot Locker and its subsidiaries are testing out a new approach via its app, aiming to erase the headache and get Jordans, NMDs, and the like in the hands of people with relative ease.
This new approach, called the app launch reservation procedure, allows users to secure sneakers through the Foot Locker, Champs, or Footaction apps the day before their launch. For a sneaker launching on a Saturday (as most do) reservations will open the Monday before at 10 a.m. Once they're open, users can register for a chance to reserve the shoes on the app's launch locator page. Here, you can input your area code to see which stores near you are using the launch reservation procedure. After registration, a countdown timer appears that runs until 6 p.m. on the night before the sneaker's release when winners are selected.
Once the timer is up, you either win or you don't. You don't have to frantically try and smash a button to add to your cart or select your size–you just check back in to see if you got the shoes. Those who win the opportunity to buy the shoes are then given three hours to confirm their reservation, and those who do will be given a unique code to present at the relevant sneaker store to complete their purchase on the shoe's actual release day.
Unlike the Nike SNKRS app, you don't purchase the shoes in the app. You pay for them once you go pick them up at your local store. What's more, those who successfully reserve pairs and don't pick them up afterward will have a worse chance at winning in the future, with the algorithm in place dinging their account. The algorithm will also take into account how often a person has won a pair to ensure that the same users aren't winning every time.
What about bots? Whenever there's an entity trying to make buying sneakers more civil, there's always someone on the other side trying to compromise the system. Foot Locker knows this, and has addressed the issue with steps during the sign-up process for the app to thwart anyone trying to automate the process. Users have to log in with their Foot Locker account and authenticate their device via a unique code.
One of the common suggestions given by sneakerheads to fix sneaker launches is to reward those who regularly buy product. Foot Locker has heard this and will offer "head starts" on the countdown timer for certain shoppers. Anyone who is a member of the Foot Locker VIP program (which you can sign up for for free) will get a two-minute head start on their clock that gives them an edge by ending the countdown early. Platinum members can get an extra two minutes, and doing a check-in with the app at a Foot Locker store will earn them another minute, meaning those who really want the shoes can get a full six-minute head start on the timer with a little legwork.
Could this new way of selling sneakers eventually phase out raffles and long lines? Foot Locker isn't committing to making those obsolete just yet, but hopes to use them less as it works out the kinks.
Foot Locker wants to make sure this new process is as fair and safe as possible, so it's testing this new app feature via a limited rollout in Tampa, Fla., for now. The pilot sneakers will be Saturday's duo of Air Jordan 11 Lows. During the testing time, Foot Locker is using exit surveys to figure out what it's doing right and what it's doing wrong. The retail chain doesn't have a time frame yet for the national rollout of the app launch reservation procedure.
Watch for updates on the Foot Locker app as the sneaker retailer introduces app launch reservations to more markets.
