So you want to start making money dropshipping sneakers online?
You came to the right article.
This article will cover everything you need to know about sneaker dropshipping.
Before we get into how you can dropship sneakers, I first want to cover the legal side of things.
A common mistake is that online sellers believe they can dropship sneakers from big trademarked brands such as Nike, Adidas and others.
This is simply not true.
Unless you can obtain a licensing from one of these big brands, you are not allowed to sell their products, even if a wholesaler is providing them for you.
On top of that, Chinese suppliers such as those on Alibaba, AliExpress and other websites sell counterfeit products which are highly illegal and can get you into serious trouble.
So what can kind of sneakers can you dropship?
Any brand you have a license for or any unbranded sneakers you can find online.
Alibaba, AliExpress, Wish and many online marketplaces that are often used for dropshipping have a wide variety of unbranded sneaker products available.
How to Dropship Sneakers Online
Find a Sneaker Dropshipping Supplier
The first step in establishing your sneaker dropshipping store, is to find a good supplier of unbranded sneakers.
To give you a little push in the right direction, I’ll cover 3 sneaker dropshipping suppliers that you can pick from depending on your budget and needs.
Option #1: AliExpress Sneaker Dropshipping
AliExpress has a wide variety of products thanks to the hundreds of thousands of sellers on the platform.
By simply typing in the keyword ‘sneaker’ we reach 101,641 total results, that’s a lot of shoes to pick from.
One big advantage of AliExpress is that products are very cheap, allowing you to sell sneakers at a good markup.
Drawbacks to AliExpress are that shipping times are long and long not every supplier is honest and trustworthy.
AliExpress can easily be integrated with Shopify through the Oberlo app.
Option #2: Dropified Sneaker Dropshipping
Dropified is a premium dropshipping service that allows you to import products from AliExpress, eBay, Etsy, Wish, Wayfair, and other US based suppliers.
A big advantage to Dropified is that you can use multiple suppliers from multiple different marketplaces, allowing you to open a huge sneaker catalog.
Drawbacks to dropified are that they take an 8% fee on the product cost.
Dropified can easily be integrated with Shopify through their app.
Option #3: Print on Demand Sneaker Dropshipping
If you’re looking to design your own sneakers, print on demand dropshipping from InterestPrint is what you’re looking for.
They have a wide variety of sneakers that you can upload your own creative designs to and offer on your very own Shopify store!
Read also: Complete Print on Demand Guide
Setup your Sneaker Dropshipping Store
The easiest and most technical-free way to get started with sneaker dropshipping is by starting a Shopify store.
Shopify is a webshop-builder and hosting service that makes starting your own webshop a piece of cake.
For a small monthly fee, you can have a webshop up and running in just an hour of work!
It really is that simple! They are in complete-package solution for anyone looking to start with eCommerce.
So head on over to Shopify and start your free trial.
Then follow along with this sneaker dropshipping guide to setup your shop!
Complete Shopify Dropshipping Guide
Starting your own sneaker dropshipping store doesn’t have to be hard. Shopify makes starting an online dropshipping store very easy in 2021.
Read our complete guide 👇
Brand Your Sneaker Store
The best sneaker brands in the world have built incredibly strong customer loyalty through branding.
Think about brands such as Nike and Adidas.
They can sell the funniest looking sneakers, and they will still sell like hot cakes.
You too, should focus on creating a good branding for your sneaker store.
Heres a few quick tips:
Design a Store Logo or Hire a Logo Designer
Your sneaker store needs a good, captivating logo.
To design your logo, you can use software such as Photoshop (paid) or Gimp (free) if you’re experienced or if you’re new to design you should stick to software such as Canva (free).
Quick tips:
Try not to overcomplicate things when coming up with a logo. A big beginner mistake is to add unnecessary elements to the logo. This will make it look very busy and unprofessional.
Stick to simple, creative logos like Nike and Adidas have done.
If you’re not confident enough in your abilities to design a logo, you should consider hiring a logo designer from Fiverr.
Pick an Appropriate Theme
The next step is to pick a theme to fit your sneaker store.
Shopify has 8 free themes available that you can pick from.
Or you can opt for a premium theme if you wish to get extensive features.
Pick a Color Scheme
Every branding has a dedicated color scheme.
Sneaker brands tend to stick to black and white and sometimes incorporate bold colors such as Yellow and Red here and there.
You should make sure not to have more than 5 colors in your color scheme and only use two primary colors.
Start Marketing Your Sneaker Products
Instagram Marketing
Instagram is a great place to get started with marketing your sneaker store.
It’s exactly the place where your target audience spends time online and Instagram is the perfect platform to establish a dedicated and loyal customer base.
Within Instagram, you can use a combination of free and paid marketing tactics to grow your brand.
Free Marketing
You can quickly grow your first 1000 followers by following others within the sneaker niche.
Sneaker-lovers are found by targeting relevant hashtags and scouring the followers of established sneaker brands.
Try to follow a healthy amount per day (keep in mind Instagram has restriction) and engage with some of their photos to establish a more meaningful connection.
In the mean time you should also focus on posting daily content.
Try to avoid just uploading product pictures (this gets stale very quickly) and instead on keeping a nice mix of quotes, product images and lifestyle images.
Influencer Marketing
Influencers are popular individuals with a large following. These individuals are known to put up promotional content in their daily posts and stories.
As a brand, you can hire an sneaker influencer to promote your product for you.
As you’re following people within the sneaker niche, you’ll quickly stumble upon a couple of niche-relevant influencers.
Those are the people you want to contact (through DM) and ask for their prices.
Most influencers are pretty expensive so I recommend you stick to individuals with less than 100K followers.
How to Dropship Sneakers — Final Thoughts
Starting your own online sneaker store with dropshipping is fairly easy and requires very little technical know-how thanks to Shopify and apps such as Oberlo.
These apps will make the store setup feel like a breeze. Be sure to check out our Shopify dropshipping guide so you can follow along step-by-step.
The most challenging part about starting a sneaker dropshipping store is the marketing aspect.