r/Sneakers•9 yr. ago

[Guide] How to minimize your chances of taking an L on Yeezys

The information I'll delineate here is accurate as of late 2016. Who knows how Adidas will choose to release Yeezys in the future, or whether you'll even need a guide to buy Yeezys.

This post is pretty robust, however please skim it or ctrl+F stuff before asking questions about Yeezy releases that can be easily answered, since the answer is probably located somewhere in this post.

First thing you're going to want to do is take a step back and look at the situation as a whole. The demand for Yeezys outweighs the supply by a large amount. The majority of people who try to buy Yeezys fail. Doesn't matter if you're buying to keep or if you're buying to sell, the odds are completely stacked against you. Go ahead and internalize the fact that you're probably going to miss out on the shoes. Getting your hopes up will likely only lead to pain.

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's look at the main avenues through which people buy Yeezys (or any shoe, for that matter): in-store and online. In-store is somewhat more straight forward so I'll start with that.

#IN-STORE

Obviously this part applies only to those lucky enough to be in a semi-large city. If you don't have any sneaker stores/chains/boutiques around you, go ahead and skip to the online portion.

As soon as the release date gets officially confirmed by Adidas, start calling your local stores/boutiques and seeing if they're getting any stock. Word is that Adidas is telling all of the physical stores that get their releases to start doing raffles, or to at least move away from FCFS. Follow the social media accounts of your local stores to find out when they're handing out tickets/wristbands. It's always a good idea to call the store and confirm which days they're handing out raffle tickets. Also make it a point to find out when they're doing calls, i.e. when they're calling raffle winners. They're not obligated to reserve your pair if you don't pick up the phone when they call, so don't be surprised if they move on to the next person if you miss the call. Sucks, but it's just the way it is.

Other national chains (e.g. Finish Line), if they get the release, will almost always be doing raffles. Same rules apply here: keep an eye on their social media accounts and on their blogs to see a) if your nearest store is getting the release, b) if they're doing a raffle, and c) what day(s) they're handing out tickets. Call the store and double-check the days they're handing out tickets, don't miss the call, etc.

Foot Locker/Champs/Footaction all have launch locators on their websites that will show you exactly which stores are releasing the Yeezys. Not sure if it's nationwide yet but they're all piloting an in-app reservation system so you don't have to wait in line overnight, nor do you have to pick up a raffle ticket from the store. They've got plenty of FAQs online for the app reservation so I'm not going to go into it here.

CONFIRMED

Ah, Adidas Confirmed, the bane of every hypebeast's existence. If you have an Adidas Originals store near you, lucky you. Adidas does their in-store releases exclusively through Confirmed, so download the app and get acquainted with it.

Reserving Yeezys through Confirmed is generally a two-step process. First, you need to sign up for the launch. If you don't sign up before reservations open, you can't attempt to reserve a pair. Sign-ups generally open pretty quickly after the release date is confirmed by Adidas and close a few hours before reservations open. This part is really as simple as logging in, selecting the city (i.e. "zone") you're trying to reserve the shoes in, and choosing your size range (the app automatically checks .5 in both directions of the size you select). You don't need to physically be inside the zone to sign up for the launch.

Second part is obviously where it gets tricky. Reservations generally open a few days before the official launch, e.g. if the launch is on a Saturday, reservations will open the Thursday before. Reservations technically open at a random time, however past reservations have opened at 4 PM Eastern (you get some prior warning through app notifications).

The attempt to reserve, you need to physically be in the zone that you signed up for. You can see a map of the zones in the app. When the reservations are about to open, you'll see a countdown timer in the app. When the timer dips below 10 seconds, the screen will change to something like, "reservations are opening soon, are you ready?" This is the point at which you probably want to start tapping the screen. Shortly after the timer disappears, the "check for availability" button will pop up. It goes without saying, but tap the button quick (it's basically FCFS). If you're lucky enough to nab a reservation, you'll see some sort of confirmation page where you confirm your size. Bring your phone to the Adidas store when you go to pick up your pair, since they'll need to see the confirmation on your phone.

#ONLINE

Alright, so online kinda sucks, however for anyone not living in a major city, it's kinda your only chance. The thing I mentioned earlier about internalizing the L is doubly important in terms of online; keep in mind that you're competing against bots and other bullshit like that.

There are a lot of different ways that websites can choose to sell their stock. The three most common ways are,

traditional FCFS
online raffle
waiting room FCFS (Adidas' system)

TRADITIONAL FCFS

To be blunt, don't even waste your time with these. Bots pretty much snap these up immediately, and I quite literally mean immediately. Foot Locker and its affiliates are notorious for doing FCFS online releases that are virtually impossible for any human to cop. Other online retailers that do FCFS are Yeezy Supply and Bodega, among others. There's really not much to say about these because there really is no point in trying if you're a human.

ONLINE RAFFLE

Seems like these are becoming more and more common. Online raffles are cool because it's as easy as entering your info and waiting for the selection email with baited breath (think like a SNKRS draw). Downside to these are that, due to the convenience, a shit ton of people enter them, so your odds of winning are pretty low. Entries are usually free though, so it can't hurt to try.

There are a couple different sites that compile links to online raffles. I generally stick to SoleLink's list, however I'm in no way guaranteeing its accuracy.

Online raffle procedures vary somewhat, as some will make it as easy as filling out an online form and hitting submit, some do Instagram raffles, some do charity raffles, etc. Instagram raffles are usually going to ask you to do something akin to reposting a picture, tagging a couple friends and commenting your size. Up to you if you want to go through that effort. Charity raffles aren't too common, but they'll probably charge a few bucks for each entry, with the proceeds going to charity ("charity").

Online raffles can also vary in that some will be for in-store pickup only, some will ship to you if you win. Again, it's best to follow the social media accounts of stores near you, as they'll announce any online raffles, along with the raffle procedures, there.

WAITING ROOM

So, for anyone who has attempted to buy Yeezys before, you'll know this is the system that Adidas is famous (infamous?) for using. It's not too confusing, it's pretty self-explanatory, but there are a couple things you should know if this is your first time buying off Adidas.com.

Adidas uses a somewhat unique system for their hyped online releases. They use this "waiting room" thing in all countries, so it's not limited to just the US.

Yeezys go live at a "random time," however (for the US) they've historically gone live sometime between 10 AM Eastern and 12 PM Eastern.

The morning of the launch, pop open your laptop/computer and navigate to adidas.com/yeezy. I'd recommend leaving a window/tab open on this page at all times. The "waiting room" for the Yeezys will go live at a random time, but all you'll have to do to enter the waiting room is refresh that page. Follow sneaker-related Twitter accounts or keep an eye on the release megathread to find out when the waiting room/queue goes live. DO NOT refresh the adidas.com/yeezy page every five seconds. Adidas will ban you.

Some people have said that enabling an ad blocker will cause errors during checkout, so go ahead and disable any ad blocking extensions/software you may be running, just to be safe.

Once the queue goes live, refresh the page ONCE. You will need to manually refresh the page to enter the waiting room, the page will not refresh itself until you enter the queue. You should see a page similar to this, except for a different product, obviously. Like the page says, don't manually refresh the page. Once you are in the waiting room, the page will automatically refresh itself every couple seconds. Now, the waiting starts. To be blunt, this part sucks. Prepare to be staring at the same screen for two to three hours while getting excited every time the page takes a fraction of a second longer than usual to refresh. Adidas' system randomly selects people waiting in the queue and sends them to the product page, so don't be surprised if you never see the product page.

If you're one of the lucky ducklings that gets through to the product page, go through the motions of selecting a size, completing the CAPTCHA, and adding to cart. Keep in mind that it's not as easy as it sounds. You very well may be able to select a size, yet get an error message every time you try to add to cart. If this happens, DON'T REFRESH. Just keep trying and hope you get lucky.

If you somehow manage to add to cart, the shoes will be reserved in your cart for exactly ten minutes (this is a relatively new feature that Adidas has added to hyped releases, I haven't heard any complaints about it myself). You have this long to complete checkout or you're SOL. Again, checkout is harder than it sounds. There's a very high chance you're going to get hit with checkout loops, payment errors, never-ending "processing..." things, etc. Don't freak out and just deal with shit as it gets thrown at you. If you keep getting payment errors or you keep getting kicked out to your cart, just keep trying.

Once the Yeezys officially sell out, you'll see a page similar to this. If you're in the waiting room when they sell out, the waiting room page should update to the "sold out" page next time the page auto-refreshes.

If you submitted an order and got a confirmation email, awesome, congrats, but keep in mind that Adidas can still cancel your order at any time, for any reason. As they say on their site, "Purchase is not finalized until you have fully completed checkout and received an order shipped email." That last part is the important part. Your shit isn't safe until you get the FedEx tracking number.

#FAQs

Can I open multiple tabs/use multiple computers and have them all sit in the waiting room on adidas.com?

Can you? Absolutely. Should you? Can't say. I have no idea how Adidas tracks IPs and all that shit but they've certainly banned people for doing that in the past. Don't know how common bans are for that sort of thing but it's up to you if you want to run that risk.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't have one Chrome window, one Firefox window, and my phone all sitting in the waiting room at the same time.

Can I buy multiple pairs off adidas.com, even though it says "one pair per customer," and just have different billing info for each order?

Start by considering how dumb it sounds to expect to have the chance to buy more than one pair when the majority of people don't get the chance to even buy one.

Now that that's been said, I wouldn't risk it. Adidas will cancel each order if they think multiple pairs are going to the same person. I asked Adidas support once if my roommate and I would be able to each buy a pair and they told me that each order had to be on a different IP. Take that how you will.

Does it matter what time I enter the waiting room/queue?

Techincally, no. Since Adidas' system randomly selects people from the waiting room to go to the product page, you could theoretically enter the waiting room for the first time five minutes before they sell out and still cop. Since the likelihood of that happening is pretty low, however, it's best to maximize your chances by entering the waiting room as soon as possible after it goes live.

What is the resell price on these going to be?

If you really need to ask this question, consider a different form of income.

Will Yeezys restock?

No.

I took the L but I really wanted these. Where can I buy an authentic pair of these?

Good news and bad news. Bad news is that fakes of any Yeezy are pretty prevalent. Good news is that, as Yeezys become less and less niche, resell prices are declining as more and more people buy only to resell (for our non-economics majors, higher supply = lower price level). Facebook groups are usually the cheapest place to buy Yeezys, but you're at risk of getting burned by fakes. Get them extensively legit checked if you go this route. Consignment shops are usually solid, however anyone who was around for the Kolorblind saga knows that authenticity sometimes may not be guaranteed. Plus, consigment shops usually have pretty high prices, since the shops themselves will take a chunk of the profit from the sale.

My personal recommendation would be to buy through GOAT or StockX. Both have an authenticity guarantee, and they legit check the shoes themselves before shipping them to you. Prices aren't usually too bad, but they're going to be higher than ones you'll see on a Facebook group. Don't take this as an endorsement though, I know that both GOAT and StockX have had at least one incident each of letting fakes through the cracks.

Moral of the story, be an educated consumer.

How can I find out that the queue has gone live quickly after Adidas activates it?

Keep an eye on new comments in the megathreads or follow @solelinks and @adidasalerts on Twitter.

Posted Dec 15, 2016, 1:29 AM UTC · edited

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