Wild Card

 Advertising Ethics - Shoe Marketplace

Brief 

As someone who loves to shop, I am absolutely keen on cool-looking sneakers. I currently own three nice pairs of shoes and the rest are sandals and boots because being in college makes you aware of splurging. Shoe companies: like Nike, Adidas, Puma, New Balance, and many more allow third-party sites access to sell their personal shoes with no penalties. This has worked well for years until it hasn't when sellers on these sites steal money from the buyers by sending fake shoes. 

By the sellers tricking the consumers, it not only affects the credibility of the company itself, but the actual brand of the shoes looks bad. Everyone is trying to make money and these sites are going to milk it any way that they can even if it means that you don't get the real deal.

StockX

Stockx is a forum through which you can sell your shoes through the site as well as purchase them from other users. This site is similar to other outlets like Mercari, Poshmark, eBay, and many more. The idea of reselling name-brand shoes at a lower price than previously bought is a great idea for those who want the latest sneakers, but do not have the equivalent amount of money. 

The problem with the company is that all of the shoes are not authentic- meaning they are fakes or remakes of other shoe brands like Nike for instance. The full Scoop of the issue can be found on complex.com. Around this time last year, Nike was suing StockX for selling fake Nike Sneakers and also calling them out for selling other fake sneakers.

If Nike had not got complaints from customers of StockX about the Nike sneakers, then I feel as though the issue wouldn't have arisen. To add, the representation of Nike Brand also purchased sneakers from the 'legitimate' site, and to their surprise, those sneakers were all fake as well. 

StockXs response to the issue was basically denying the claim, without fully saying that. They explained the process by which sellers send in their shoes for an authenticity test and if deemed real, then the seller would make that profit or deny it with no profit.

The return policy for fake shoes or any of their products depends on the description of the shoes beforehand, so if it doesn't say anything about returns then you cannot. In other instances, if the company feels as if their product is false from a seller, then the matter will be put into the hands of the authorities according to wallstreetsurvivor.com.

My Remarks

If the statement about Stockxs' authenticity test were true, how does this continue to happen? My next question is what does the authenticity test consist of I am not a sneakerhead, but I can spot a fake shoe up close with my left lazy eye.

Outcome

After researching, it is neither confirmed nor denied if there has been a solution or not, but it is very clear that StockX does not care about its consumers and they still continue to sell false name brand shoes on their site.