For the Atlantic city FBLA conference, I wrote a speech on how Kobe Bryant’s death affected sneaker resale prices. Because of the Corona Virus, I was unable to perform it, so instead, I’m posting it here.
Good morning, I’m Evan Masiello here to give a presentation on how catastrophic public events can affect business, specifically focusing on Kobe Bryant and his signature sneaker line. I’m giving this speech in order to create more interest in and understanding of the American business enterprise, by researching how a recent event influenced business. This is one of the FLBA goals, and it stood out to me because I believe that gaining an understanding of business is very important, as it affects our everyday lives in more ways than we realize. So, as many of you may know, Kobe Bryant was a very successful basketball player honored for his dedication and extreme work ethic. His honorable virtues allowed him to find a home in the hearts of basketball fans all over the world. Unfortunately on Jan. 26th, he passed away in a helicopter accident. Because of his expansive influence, there was a strong reaction to his death. Along with shocking the public, there was a great increased demand for Kobe Bryant merchandise and sneakers. In conjunction with this increased demand Nike has discontinued its sale of Kobe Bryant products, forcing those that want to buy his sneakers to get them from an aftermarket source.
Over the years sneaker collecting has become increasingly popular, and now has seen mainstream acceptance by the youth, and specifically sports fans or those interested in fashion and streetwear. This surge of popularity has led to a large demand for aftermarket sales of sneaker products, from big athletic brands like Nike, Adidas, and Jordan. Although many private sellers and smaller shops have discontinued their sale of Kobe Bryant’s products, one very popular website, StockX, which treats the sneakers sold on its site as investments and has the tagline the stock market of things, has not. On StockX they use a system where sellers list a price they will sell for and buyers list the price they will pay, in order to sell shoes at the price they are valued by sellers and buyers. As a part of their mission, StockX displays a full sale history for all products sold through their service. This includes a majority of the Kobe Bryant sneaker line. To gain an understanding of the impact, I examined the change in price of certain sneakers directly after the Jan. 26th accident. The first of these, the Kobe 5 proto “Chaos”, was released shortly before the accident. This pair saw a substantial increase of value with the sale price increasing by $129. This exemplifies the great effects of Kobe’s passing by showing that it increased the value of his sneakers by over 153%. Another sneaker, the Kobe 4 proto x undefeated “Lakers” released about 5 months before the accident. This pair saw some early traction because it was a collaboration with a popular brand but generally leveled out around their retail price. However, after the incident, the value skyrocketed. The first sale after Kobe’s passing was $399 greater than it sold for before the crash. This is a 295% rise in price which shows how this event made a fairly accessible product a high priced piece of memorabilia. Both of these are prime examples of sneakers that released fairly recently but saw little aftermarket success until their value soared, as a result of Kobe’s accident.
The accident caused many aftermarket sneaker sellers to suspend the sale of Kobe sneakers and condemned others for attempting to profit off such a terrible occurrence. Many people that work in similar spaces, like professional sneaker customizers, have also suspended making custom Kobe Bryant sneakers. However, this has not stopped the people from acting under questionable morals and selling their sneakers on StockX. Not only are these people benefiting from someone’s death, but they also are giving in to the increased demand, and possibly selling Kobe products to people that may not have bought it had he not passed away. This issue specifically always seems to be a popular stance with die-hard fans who feel the need to protect their heroes from people they don’t believe really appreciated them before they were all over the news. However, I believe that the worst effect of this increase in value is on those that are Kobe fans looking to get new shoes just because they admire him. I think that these people should be able to access Kobe’s merchandise at the same price they could buy it before his death. I personally was contemplating getting a pair of the recent Kobe “Undefeated” sneakers, but after the price change, I definitely can’t buy them at their current inflated point. However, this issue is very complicated and it can be hard to judge who is in the wrong and who is acting in the best interest of all. Overall, Kobe’s death has caused a great increase in demand and thus value for his sneaker line. In turn, this has raised some moral questions about whether or not people should engage in and provide for this overly stimulated market.
Similar to Kobe’s death, although in the music industry, the recent loss of rappers pop smoke and juice wrld led to each of their streaming numbers rising by 392% and 453% respectively. In these situations, although there is less heated, debate or economically rooted problems, long time fans still feel that the growing popularity as a result of someone’s death is wrong. Another less specific example of tragedy stimulating business is the current hand sanitizer shortages that have resulted from growing fears of a coronavirus pandemic. All four of these recent events show how tragedy can stimulate business, and the mostly sour reactions of fans of these celebrities, in the case of Kobe, Pop Smoke, and juice wrld.
This poses the question “Is it ok to sell merchandise at a higher price because of a horrible event?” Each person can only answer this for themselves, but the general takeaway of studying this event is that Kobe Bryant’s death had a large effect on aftermarket merchandise sales and is a prime example of how tragedy can stimulate business.
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