The Nike Dunk Low SE Sanddrift was all junior Jonah Howard could think about in his math class.
As a sneaker reseller, Howard bought 17 pairs of the Nike shoes without having to take out his computer. Howard, and many other sneaker resellers, use “bots” to make purchases.
“Sneaker bots are like online softwares, and they allow me to get a bunch of one shoe,” said Howard. “If the normal person might be able to get one of the shoes, I can get as many as possible.”
Howard uses the bot software, ValorAIO, to schedule when he buys a shoe so he does not have to be on his computer during the sale.
Howard credits most of the sneakers he gets to ValorAIO, he said.
Howard’s information about sneaker drops come from cook groups, he said.
Cook groups are online communities that give sneaker resellers information about when a sneaker is going to drop, where to get it and how much they can expect to sell it for. Howard pays $25 a month to be a part of a cook group.
Junior Nathan Stupnitsky has bought two pairs of shoes from Howard.
“I know I’ll get a pair of shoes if I’m going to him, but if I try and get it in [an online shoe] lottery then I might not get it,” Stupnitsky said.
Stupnitsky also receives shoe shipments to his home address for Howard.
Nike blocks the number of accounts that can be associated with one address, so Howard asked to use Stupnitsky and other friends’ addresses around Northbrook to have other accounts that go to other houses, Stupnitsky said.
According to Jonah Howard’s mom Lynn Howard, the amount of time it takes to research takes a lot more than she and Jonah Howard’s dad really understand.
According to Jonah Howard, he has made 392 sales over the past year and a half.
“I sell maybe half through my Instagram by posting the sneaker, and people will swipe up on my story or say that they’re interested,” said Jonah Howard. “I sell probably the other half on Discord.”
Jonah Howard has sold to stores such as Curated HNL and Mo3soles, which are located in Hawaii and South Carolina, respectively.
Jonah Howard started his business because an older friend of his resold sneakers, he said.
“I started to see the ones he wore and I was like ‘Oh these are so cool,’” said Jonah Howard. “And ever since then I’ve really just loved them.”