JUDY WOODRUFF: Now to a
surprising way to make money:
the sneaker resale market, where

used Nikes and Adidas can
sell for hundreds, sometimes
thousands of dollars.

Our economics correspondent,
Paul Solman, has the story.

It's part of our series
Making Sense, which
airs every Thursday.

PAUL SOLMAN: In the back of New
York's Javits Convention Center,
buyers and sellers, teenage

boys mostly, haggled
in the trading pit.

Here's one of the hottest
markets in America I knew
almost nothing about, sneakers.

YU-MING WU, Founder, Sneaker
Con: This weekend, we're
going to have 20,000 people.

PAUL SOLMAN: When Yu-Ming Wu
founded Sneaker Con nine years
ago, just 800 people showed

up.

This year, eight conventions
of so-called sneakerheads are
planned around the country.

New York's is the biggest.

YU-MING WU: We created this
space for anyone to come in to
buy a pair of sneakers, to sell

a pair of sneakers, or
trade a pair of sneakers.

PAUL SOLMAN: So, in a sense,
this is a physical eBay?

YU-MING WU: It is a
physical eBay, yes,
correct, for sneakers.

PAUL SOLMAN: Much-hyped limited
releases of Nike Air Jordans,
as in Michael, and Adidas

Yeezys, the brand of
Kanye West, have spurred a
billion-dollar resale market.

When they appear, they bring
chaos, sometimes even violence,
to the few stores that have

them, and then bring
premium prices on the
secondary market, like here.

Sneaker-monger Matt Bogy.

MATT BOGY, Sneaker Reseller:
So these are the Red Octobers.

They're worth about five to
$6,000 on average per pair.

PAUL SOLMAN: That's what
you're selling him for or...

MATT BOGY: Yes.

That's what I'm
selling them for.

And I also have a pair
signed by Kim Kardashian,
which is Kanye West's wife.

Those are -- I price those
at about $7,000, $8,000.

PAUL SOLMAN: Wait a minute,
thousands of dollars
for a pair of sneakers?

As a mom here put it:

WOMAN: It is insane.

And we're having a ton of
fun, but it's incredible to
see how much sneakers cost.

PAUL SOLMAN: But there
were some bargains.

Sneakerhead Tyre Coles was
hocking used kicks from his
own ever-burgeoning collection.

TYRE COLES, Sneaker
Reseller: I love Nikes to
the bottom of my heart.

I buy any pair.

PAUL SOLMAN: Nickson Descas
was selling a pair of Nike
Air Max trophies he'd bought

for $300.

NICKSON DESCAS, Sneaker
Reseller: I have been
wearing them a lot.

They're a little beat.

So, I will try to sell them
around $150, maybe $200.

PAUL SOLMAN: For used sneakers?

What's going on here?

Well, one thing,
says, Nickson Descas:

NICKSON DESCAS: We
just love the hustle.

We just love the game.

PAUL SOLMAN: Ah, the hustle
and bustle of the marketplace.

GIOVANNI TORQUATO, Sneakerhead:
I like buying the shoes,
selling the shoes, trading the

shoes.

CINDY SHORE, Sneakerhead Mom:
It's a great way for young
kids to learn about business

and how to make money
and sometimes lose
money, and based upon the
decisions that they make.

Why not learn early?

PAUL SOLMAN: And
not just sneakers.

Brandon Shore dealt in leather.

BRANDON SHORE,
Sneakerhead: I bought this.

And then I was able to
sell it for more, and
then buy a second one.

PAUL SOLMAN: But sneakerhead
culture drives the market.

And it is, above all, about
identity, by proxy, for example,
through the Michael Jordans and

Kanye Wests.

Vlogger: Wow.

Smells like a brand-new
pair of denim.

PAUL SOLMAN: Or a new breed of
celebs, like Kice Omar (ph),
who vlog, video blog, that

is, about sneakers on YouTube.

Mainly, though, through
peer-to-peer connection
and competition.

GIOVANNI TORQUATO: There's a
term, it's called a hypebeast,
where someone just gets an item

just to like brag about everyone
that they have the newest,
coolest item, even if they

don't like it.

PAUL SOLMAN: Again,
convention founder Yu-Ming Wu:

YU-MING WU: I always
say they want to look
fresher than the next.

They want to look cooler than
their peers, their friends,
their classmates, and also

have some level of status.

I have something cooler.

I have this rarer pair.

I have something that you
weren't -- not that you couldn't
afford, but that you couldn't

get.

STEVEN QUARTZ, California
Institute of Technology:
Cool began in the
1950s as rebel cool.

PAUL SOLMAN: Steven Quartz
has studied cool as a
Caltech neuro-economist.

His theory:

STEVEN QUARTZ: What happened
in the 1950s was that, as we
began to increase our standard

of living, in a hierarchical
society, it really created
what we can think of
as a status dilemma.

There just wasn't enough
status to go around.

And what people began to do,
especially kids began to do,
was create alternative status

systems.

PAUL SOLMAN: At his
Nashville showroom, sneaker
reseller Yuanrun "Z" Zheng
also drew a connection

to the increased inequality
of recent decades.

Sure, the sneaker market
is status-driven, he says,
but it's affordable status.

YUANRUN "Z" ZHENG, Sneaker
Reseller: The retail
of any sneakers, I will
say, have never eclipsed

over $350, until that Nike
came with the crazy self-lacing
shoe that cost $800.

But that's an outlier in itself.

So people with no money or
some people with no financial
means can also get the limited

edition sneaker, just like a
person with a lot of money.

PAUL SOLMAN: Back at
Sneaker Con, it was clear
that sneaker culture has
taken on a commercial

life of its own, with prize
pairs so sought-after,
counterfeits now abound,
hence the long lines

at the convention's legit check
table, where Bryan Mora, among
others, ferreted out fakes.

BRYAN MORA, Legit Checker: It'll
be the glue smell . It will
be the way the shoe is shaped.

PAUL SOLMAN: How many fakes
have you guys caught today?

How many fakes?

BRYAN MORA: We caught
about like 30 pairs.

PAUL SOLMAN: There's even
a lone ranger of kicks, who
calls himself Yeezy Busta, and

he's built a brand around
busting knock-offs.

YEEZY BUSTA, Yeezy Shoe Expert:
The reason why I wear my
mask is because what I do is,

I call out celebrities
who wear fake Yeezys.

And some of them wanted to
come after me and sue me, so
I decided I wouldn't reveal my

face.

PAUL SOLMAN: Now, fans or family
members of the Busta fam can
get their own branded masks

for only $20.

I would imagine this is
also fairly healthy, right?

YEEZY BUSTA: Yes, I mean, if
anybody's sick and somebody
tries to cough on you, you don't

get it in your mouth.

You know?

(LAUGHTER)

PAUL SOLMAN: OK, so sneakers are
fun and instructive to trade, a
mark of status, comfortable of

course, and finally, argues,
Yu-Ming Wu, works of art.

YU-MING WU: I believe
that sneakers are
mass-produced sculptures.

We have incredible artists,
incredible designers
who design and create
these incredible shoes

PAUL SOLMAN: Most famously,
Tinker Hatfield, the
Nike designer behind
the most iconic Air

Jordans.

TINKER HATFIELD, Nike Designer:
It's not just scribbling on
a piece of paper and coming

up with a design.

It's a lot of effort that goes
into trying to be meaningful

PAUL SOLMAN: A legend in the
sneaker world, he got mainstream
attention via a Netflix

documentary.

YU-MING WU: He saw architecture
as inspiration for sneakers,
and I believe he is a Leonardo

da Vinci of the sneaker world.

PAUL SOLMAN: So when you say
Tinker Hatfield is the Leonardo
of sneakers, are you equating

the achievements
of Leonardo, say?

YU-MING WU: Centuries from
today, we will look back at
Tinker Hatfield and consider

him to be one of the
most incredible artists.

PAUL SOLMAN: And centuries from
now, maybe a pair of Air Jordans
will sell for $450 million,

as da Vinci's Salvator
Mundi recently did.

Who knows?

As concert promoter
Darryll Brooks put it:

DARRYLL BROOKS, Concert
Promoter: Value is in
the eye of the beholder.

Some people collect things.

I'm a collector,
but not of sneakers.

When you were a kid, when
they were collecting G.I.

Joes, you had a set of G.I.

Joes.

Don't tell me you didn't.

PAUL SOLMAN: I didn't.

I never had a G.I.

Joe in my life.

But I did collect a
variety of things,
minerals, baseball cards.

DARRYLL BROOKS: Same thing,
different generation.

I got old cars.

But these kids wouldn't
look at my cars.

They would say, ah.

What would they do with a
1976 Eldorado convertible?

They probably wouldn't know
what the heck that was.

It would look like
a big boat to them.

But it isn't a big boat to me.

I love it.

(LAUGHTER)

PAUL SOLMAN: As the
20,000 people in New
York for the convention,
and millions more around

the country, love their
sneakers, so long as
they're the real thing.

For the "PBS NewsHour," this
is economics correspondent
Paul Solman,, the real Paul

Solman.