Why eBay sneakers have been seeing triple-digit growth over the last few quarters

Garry Thaniel, eBay General Manager of Sneakers, joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss SneakerCon 2021 taking place in San Jose, California this weekend and outlook for the sneaker market.

Video Transcript

- SneakerCon hits the ground running this weekend in San Jose, California. It draws a lot of attention for an industry pegged at $21 billion. And don't forget, the resale sneaker market-- that's worth about $2 billion. Joining us now to talk about it all is eBay's general manager of Sneakers, Garry Thaniel. We've also got with us Yahoo Finance's Reggie Wade.

Good to have you both here. And Garry, pretty impressive numbers that eBay is putting up when it comes to [? Sneakers. ?] Tell us what sales have been like during the pandemic on your platform.

GARRY THANIEL: Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me here today. Sales have been great. We are seeing triple-digit growth for the last few quarters here at eBay Sneakers. And I think part of it is largely due to the fact that we've rolled out authenticity guarantee.

So that means we actually inspect the sneakers that come through. And we have a program for that to ensure that consumers are getting the best and most authentic and genuine sneakers. So we feel that gives both sellers and buyers confidence and helps us at eBay where, you know, originators and the sneaker resale space and the sneaker marketplace base. So it really gives us some great ground to build on as we look at the future.

REGGIE WADE: Garry, Reggie Wade here. And I have to say that's a lot of heat behind you. I'm getting a little bit jealous.

GARRY THANIEL: [? Shade ?] [? of ?] Reggie.

REGGIE WADE: --don't know that.

GARRY THANIEL: [LAUGHS]

REGGIE WADE: [LAUGHS] We all know that eBay started as the original online platform for sneaker fans. But it kind of lost some of its footing and credibility when it came to the authenticity of its products. How has eBay gone about getting that credibility back within consumers?

GARRY THANIEL: Yeah, I think that's what we did was we went out and partner with SneakerCon. As you know, we're here in San Jose for SneakerCon today. And they are-- we're the title sponsor of SneakerCon. But they're also our partner for authenticity guarantee.

They have an amazing team that does the inspection. And if you want to see it firsthand, I encourage as many consumers as possible and buyers and sellers as possible to get down to SneakerCon San Jose if you're in the Bay Area. We'll actually have an authentication center set up at SneakerCon San Jose, because what we wanted to do was get back the trust and trust and transparency. And so much of that comes with establishing confidence that the sneakers that consumers are buying are the real deal.

So as you mentioned, we truly feel like we are originators and the sneaker marketplace face. And, you know, doing things, like having an authenticity guarantee program while also being able to offer things like zero selling fees for sneakers over $100 have helped us really gain a lot of traction and begin to reestablish our place in the market.

REGGIE WADE: Garry, I was able to go to a SneakerCon in Cleveland in 2019 and great event. But you see a lot of men there. The sneaker world has been mostly a boys club. What has eBay been doing to kind of change those demographics?

GARRY THANIEL: I agree, Reggie It has been a boys club. But we see our female sneakerheads as a huge opportunity for engagement in the community. But we also have seen significant growth in the female sneakerhead consumer.

On eBay that we've seen over the last year the business grow 80% for female sneakerheads. And when you talk about women who are buying for, you know, a man in their life, that business is double. So we're trying to do in terms of if you look at our social media and our messaging, we're obviously highlighting many more of our female buyers and sellers.

But what we're also doing is really taking a look at what is the experience on site and how we make sure that we as a eBay sneaker community are as inclusive as possible.

- I know that this SneakerCon's going to look very different from ones in the past because of the pandemic. Tell us what are some of the COVID protocols? And is this a smaller event than it normally would be because of COVID-19?

GARRY THANIEL: It'll be slightly smaller, but we've sold out the presale. And we're expecting a very good turnout here in San Jose. Masks are mandate. So we asked everyone to as much as you can practice social distancing. Please bring and wear your masks. We'll make sure everyone's there to have an amazing time.

But between the selling that goes on at SneakerCon's the community and engagement, we as the eBay team is really looking forward to having an opportunity to really engage with our people and our community offline. But we have raffles. We'll be giving away some really exclusive sneakers, possibly some of the ones behind me here that Reggie referenced earlier. So even though it'll be a definitely a different feel than previous SneakerCon's we're excited that we're putting together an amazing event.

REGGIE WADE: Yeah, we know the usual suspects-- the Nike's, the Adidas, the Jordan brands. What are some up and coming silhouettes and sneakers that you've been seeing that's really garnering a lot of attention coming into this weekend, SneakerCon?

GARRY THANIEL: You know, I tell everyone I love everything that a lot of sneaker community is doing because I think it's a really just exciting time in sneakers. One of the brands that I've been paying a lot of attention to is New Balance. I think New Balance has been doing some amazing work in partnerships.

I'm also paying a lot of attention to Puma both in terms of what they're doing in basketball but also their classics. So those are two that stick out to me off the top. But I think the second half of the year when we look at the release schedules that Nike, Adidas, Yeezy, and a lot of the leaders in the industry have, it's just going to be a very exciting time for the back half of 2021 in the sneaker community.

- All right, we'll be watching. Garry Thaniel, eBay general manager of Sneakers. Good luck at SneakerCon this weekend. Glad to see that still going on.