Two online stores, the same sneaker, the exact same pair — and yet a €70 difference. Not a mistake, not a coincidence. That’s simply how the market works. The price you pay is the result of several forces that rarely point in the same direction. Let’s break it down.
It starts with the retail price
Every brand assigns a recommended retail price to its sneakers (the RRP or MSRP). That’s the starting point, not the final price. Stores are free to deviate from it, and they do: one sticks to its full margin, while another applies an immediate discount to bring you in. The retail price is therefore mainly an anchor point to calculate from.
Why prices vary between stores
Purchasing terms, inventory pressure, the season, and simply how badly a store wants to get rid of a particular model — it all plays a role. A sneaker that has just arrived at one store may already be on sale at another because the warehouse needs clearing. Multiply that across a hundred online stores and you end up with a wide range of prices for the exact same pair. In our monthly Price Gap analysis, we measure that difference: for the average sneaker, it can amount to tens of percentage points.
And then there’s the hype
For most sneakers, the price drops over time — that’s a Meltdown, and you benefit from it. But with scarce, highly sought-after pairs, the opposite happens: the price shoots up as soon as stores sell out. At that point, you’re no longer talking about retail, but resale — a market with its own rules.
The takeaway
There’s no such thing as a sneaker’s “real” price. There’s an RRP, and around it, a market that shifts all day long. Once you understand that, you’ll consistently pay less — simply by comparing prices instead of grabbing the first pair you find. That’s exactly what the rest of this guide is about.