From School to Six Figures: How This 16-Year-Old Beat the Odds Reselling Sneakers

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It’s 2020, and these days, there are a million and one ways to make money, especially if you know how to make the most out of social media. There are new opportunities and markets emerging such as dropshipping, affiliate marketing and targeted ecommerce.

One way of making money that is as old as time, however, is flipping assets for a profit. This is the practice of purchasing popular items at low cost and reselling them at a higher price. Of course, for the most part, that’s just the formula for any business, but flipping can be done by anyone.

Nowadays, anything can be “flipped”- even promising Instagram pages themselves can be purchased and revamped. It’s for this reason that we have more young entrepreneurs today than ever before. The youth of today know how to make money, and they’re not afraid to go out and get it.

A teenager making six-figure sales

While many teenagers wish and dream to make money online, this 16-year-old entrepreneur, Aashish Kambhaladinne is making his dream come true. In just a few years, Aashish created a brand buying and reselling sneakers on the online resale marketplace StockX, where you can sell sneakers, trading cards, handbags, and other collectibles, as well as other platforms such as Goat and eBay.

Aashish first got into reselling when he saw older kids selling their sneakers, and were able to wear all the cool shoes Aashish did not have. In an effort to get these shoes for himself — and make some extra money, he started buying and reselling sneakers in 9th grade. Soon, other people started to reach out to him to find out if they could purchase limited edition shoes through him that were sold out everywhere else. Aashish’s reputation quickly grew as he became the guy who could get the sneakers you wanted. He was able to use his social media expertise to build a network and get access to exclusive products which he then sold to through various platforms. Aashish was able to build his network and carve out a market share in this crowded marketplace. Once he had an established network, he was able to take requests from various clients, primarily through social media, and provide them with sneakers that were super hard to find and exclusive.

Those small sales quickly grew to six-figure revenues. Since, Aashish has sold hundreds of sneakers, including sneakers to celebrities such as the artist @iamtherealak. Today, it’s a huge part of his life, and he is now expanding to wholesale of products from coveted brands such as Bape, Vlone, and Anti-Social Social Club.

America’s obsession with sneakers

The 1989 Air Jordan ad campaign in which Nike explains the source of Michael Jordan’s talent — “it’s gotta be the shoes,” is a pivotal moment in modern sneaker history with deep historical roots[1].

Sneakers have always been popular in the United States, but they have now become a popular collector’s item. This business-minded young man knew how to manipulate the supply and demand chain, and made his money following the fashion, trends and customer behaviour.

With high-profile stars like Justin Timberlake, Anna Wintour and Lebron James partnering up with sports shoe companies, sneaker culture has become more mainstream and sought after. The challenge is a lot of these sneakers are limited in stock and are hard to find. Aashish capitalized on this growing market and created a brand connecting people with their “dream” sneakers.

Aashish’s passion, drive, empathy and determination has certainly paid off so far, and we can only wait and see what other success he creates for himself in the future. To follow Aashish’s journey and see what sneakers he’s got in currently, follow him on Instagram @Curryresell.