Laced homepage. Image Credits:<\/strong> Laced<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The seller sets a price, with no eBay-like auction element available, and the shoes are then placed in a queue which is prioritized by the lowest price first \u2014 this, according to Laced chief of staff Gareth Olyott, is designed to encourage sellers to set their goods at a reasonable price.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo get to the front of the queue, and have the best chance of selling your item, the price must be the lowest,\u201d Olyott told TechCrunch. \u201cThis disincentives sellers to list items at astronomically high prices in comparison to their value.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no escaping some of the similarities here with something like secondary ticketing marketplaces, whereby touts (maybe aided by bots) scoop up all the tickets for a concert from a primary ticketing outlet, and instantly sell them on \u201clegitimate\u201d secondary marketplaces for a hefty profit.<\/p>\n

The arguments for<\/em> these models are very similar too, insofar as having a properly authenticated, legitimate business managing the resale process ensures that buyers aren\u2019t dealing with dubious merchants.<\/p>\n

\u201cFootwear accounts for 20% of the value of all counterfeit goods, and the counterfeit sneaker market is estimated to be worth five times the legitimate market,\u201d Olyott continued. \u201cThis shows that the proliferation of counterfeit items in this sector is a huge problem for collectors and enthusiasts alike. Laced removes the risk of buying an item from an unregulated marketplace, and for it to arrive and be inauthentic.\u201d<\/p>\n

All trainers should be new and in their original packaging, and after each completed transaction the seller ships their goods to Laced, which uses in-house authenticators to check their veracity and forwards them to the buyer, taking a 15% cut on top of the list price.<\/p>\n

And unlike something like eBay, buyers and sellers on Laced remain entirely anonymous \u2014 both to the public, and to each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cLaced operates purely as the middleman in the relationship between the buyer and the seller,\u201d Olyott said. \u201cWe not only exist to ensure quality and authentication of the items but to also keep everyone involved anonymous and safe. We believe that for the customer at least, anonymity keeps things more streamlined and simple. Especially where high-value and highly desirable items are concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laced is focused exclusively on the U.K., which does set it apart from many of its counterparts, while it also claims to have a unique authentication process, though it wasn\u2019t at complete liberty to say exactly what this is.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re of course limited to how much we can divulge through fear of giving the counterfeiters any information they could use to attempt to game the system here,\u201d Olyott said. \u201cBut it\u2019s the use of pattern identification alongside a huge database of variables specific to each \u2018silhouette\u2019 which we use as markers to identify the authentic against the counterfeit. This is then supported by a syllabus which we\u2019ve developed internally for training our teams. As you can imagine, there are new items launching every day, so we\u2019re in a perpetual state of updating these methods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moreover, Laced says that while many others in the space rely heavily on third-party infrastructure such as that provided by Shopify, it has built its entire tech stack \u201cwith long-term scale and flexibility\u201d in mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuilding our own tech stack, and not relying on third-party services, means that we can offer speed beyond our competitors at every point of the process,\u201d Olyott said.<\/p>\n