There is a lucrative business opportunity if you have 200 bucks to invest and there is no degree required. Most importantly, it isn’t illegal either. All you need is a computer and some extra time on your hands.

Selling sneakers that are exclusive or hard to acquire post-release can easily win you a profit of a 100 dollars and up. If you are knowledgeable of the sneaker culture, it will be very easy for you to follow which sneakers will reap the most profit.

Sounds too good to be true right? Although it’s a quick way to make some fast cash, there are some difficulties that come along with it.

John, who likes to call himself a sneaker connoisseur, gave me some insight on how the game is played.

“I have to keep my eyes on at least four websites to know what sneakers are gonna be the hot ones to drop. If I don’t get the ones that can win me the most money, I go for the next pair.”

The most he’s made on a pair of sneakers is $2,000 for a pair he spent $200 on. The Nike Doernbecher’s, which are only released once per year, are custom made by kids who are severely ill.

This years line of Doernbecher’s consist of an array of colors. The Jordan Doernbecher’s 12’s are Black all around, with a splash of bright pink on the bottom edges of the shoe.

The bottom of the sole has an image of the designer’s favorite stuffed animal puppy. There’s a small pizza emblem right where the laces are.

Nike gives 7 or 8 children the opportunity to have their custom take on traditional Nike sneakers. There is a high demand for these pairs all the time. That is a $1,800 profit and a 900% mark up on a pair of sneakers that cost significantly less to make.

Although he doesn’t always hit those marginally high profits, “You can get a good flow of extra cash on the side,” he said.

John introduced me to a gentleman who goes by the name of “Crispy” who does this for a living. Crispy described to me that this is his full-time job and that he first started five years ago.

As an ex-employee of an undisclosed footlocker, he would meet people that would offer him the retail price of the box just to hold the sneakers for them when they would be released in store.

He saw an opportunity there and started building a network of people that worked in other footlockers and exclusive clothing brand stores that would win him a significant profit. He made a lot of money this way and decided that it was his passion to continue in the sneaker game.

“I used to make a lot of money in those times because there would be 2 or 3 exclusive drops a year tops,” he said.

The 4 or 5 pairs that he would try to hold would go to the highest bidders and he’d split the profits with his manager to keep things quiet.

Sneaker companies eventually caught on to these side deals that were going on; plus a mixture of long lines, wait times, and fights caused some changes.

For example, more sneakers started being released on a more frequent basis and with the rise of phone applications, it made it more convenient for people to make online orders rather than physically wait hours at stores in order to get sneakers.

Once Crispy stopped making a good profit off sneakers in store, he moved over to other alternatives. He wanted to find a way that helped him get as many pairs of sneakers that he could get his hands on so that he could flip them for a profit. He did some research online and discovered something called bots.

Bots are pre-programmed software that auto-fills your information on these online sites and apps that guarantee that you get a pair of sneakers faster than any human could.

Crispy spent 100 bucks per bot and he bought 5 at the time, which allow him to run on a variety of websites. You can either choose an online bot from a website that has an array of popular stores to choose from, or have independent programmers create one for him. He chose the latter.

This process terribly slows down the apps because so many people have them, he said. This makes it almost impossible for anyone who is casually trying to shop for these sneakers in a fair way to obtain them.

The bot pre-fills and checks you out in By Daniel Espitia Contributing Writer Beyond John Jay People Are Making Thousands By Selling New Pairs of Shoes Daniel Espitia microseconds and although some stores and websites cancel some of these quick transactions to try to deflect bots, it creates a problem.

Some people just happen to be very fast at checking out because they will have their information auto-filled on Google Chrome. This makes it very hard for website engineers to stop it, so there is very little regulation.

Another sneaker seller, Paulie, has made it his priority to make connections at exclusive sneaker boutiques that sell very limited shoes.

He goes to places like Flight Club, Extra Butter LES, and Supreme where he regularly gets exclusive items in bulk. Sometimes he puts them out before they are even released to the public. He sells things for huge profit using sites like Stockx, where the shoes go to the highest bidder. At the very least, he makes about $6,000 per month. His biggest breadwinners; Supreme clothing accesories and Kanye West’s “Yeezys.”

Yeez’ys highest demand sneaker that came out recently are the Boost Semi Frozen Yellow’s which are light weight, hand knit running shoes. All in a high-lighter Yellow, with black dotting on the bottom and top of the sneaker; With the model number of the shoe stitched in red on the side.

“People who are really about staying on top of the culture will spend whatever money they need to have the hottest thing on their feet or clothing over their shoulder,” Paulie stated. “They will have the sneakers for a week or two, and sell them off for whatever they can to get whatever is coming out next.”

Between paying people off who work at the store, buying the sneakers, and other clothing accessories, Paulie spends a minimum of $1,800 per month.

Recently, Kanye West dropped two of his newest shoes and Nike is dropping its super-limited “Off-white” collection, so Paulie is projected to bring in a nice profit. According to many shoe websites like highsnobiety.com the “off-whites” Nike’s are probably going to go for the highest markup of the year.

The iconic Air Jordan ones, Uptempo’s, Vapormax, along with seven others are being made in off-white colors. If you can get ahold of any of them, you are guaranteed to make a profit.

There is a lot of money to be made in this market, but it isn’t easy. Too many people are getting involved in this market and the more people get into it the harder it is for anyone starting out to make money.

If you really want to get into selling sneakers, you are going to have to possibly bend the rules a bit to have things go your way. The rest of us can only hope for the scraps that get left behind.