Is Sneaker Botting Still Worth It in 2024 - Proxyway (2024)

No matter if you’re a seasoned sneakerhead or just a newbie looking for a profitable side hustle – you might be concerned about the current state of the market. And you should be. Bot prices are falling rapidly. The most experienced sneaker botters are switching to consoles and NFTs. Stores are upping their anti-bot security.

Is this a sign thatsneaker copping and reselling is coming to an end? Should you still attempt to bot sneaker stores in 2024? Or simply count your losses?

In this article, I’ll explain what exactly is going on in the market and what you can expect.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that sneaker sites aren’t happy about this highly profitable side hustle. After all, sneaker botters prevent regular users from getting a fair shot at copping the stock. That’s why major sneaker stores like Footlocker, Nike, and Supreme are strengthening their bot protection.

So, how exactly do sneaker stores fight back? They’re very secretive about the specifics. Who can blame them? The sneaky bot developers are constantly monitoring their every move, just so they can beat the stores at their own game.

But there are a few tricks retailers use to stop bots.

One of the most powerful strategies retailers have implemented so far is raffle. Bots triumph on the “first come, first served releases”, but raffles are a whole different story. They change the rules by randomizing who gets to buy the shoes.

Once Nike implemented raffle-based releases on the SNKRS app, it became one of the most frustrating brands to bot. To sneaker botters’ major disappointment, Footlocker recentlyfollowed Nike’s stepsby introducing online raffles to its mobile app releases.

While raffles pose a challenge, they don’t make bots completely useless. Sneakers bots have several ways of winning at draws. Here’s one that’s easiest to grasp: most of the bots allow running hundreds of tasks and all of them enter a draw as different, unrelated individuals (but only if you use proxies), maximizing your chances to cop.

What newbies dread more than raffles are CAPTCHAS. This anti-bot security measure has given a lot of Ls to inexperienced botters.

CAPTCHAs require a special human touch. Some of them are invisible – they determine whether you’re a bot or not by tracking your mouse movements, typing activity, and analyzing your traffic. Others are more straightforward – they require you to select specific images on an image grid or simply click on the checkbox confirming that “I’m not a robot”.

CAPTCHAs pose a serious threat to bots, but resourceful sneaker botters useCAPTCHA proxies, CAPTCHA harvesters and old Gmail accounts to trick this security system.

If you’re still considering whether you should get involved with sneaker copping, you may not care about anti-bot security and moral or legal implications just yet. What you probably care about is whether you can afford to start cooking kicks or not.

I’m going to be honest: starting copping is an expensive ordeal. Just like any other business, it requires some solid starting capital. Let’s see how much everything costs in this biz.

• Bot.The cost of a bot is hard to estimate. There are many of them on the market, and their prices vary based on their success and popularity. Sneaker bots, including the always-available bots, run from$200 to $500. Since most are usually sold out, you may end up paying anywhere from$1,000 to $8,000for a bot, depending on the current aftermarket situation. Renting costs cheaper($5-50 per day)but you don’t get to keep the bot.
  Check out our post onhow to get a sneaker botfor more information. If you don’t one which bot to pick, we wrote a guide to thebest sneaker bots.

• Virtual server and a computer.If you’re using a resource-intensive bot, you’re going to need a powerful machine. Ideally the kind that runs on Windows, as most bots are created specifically for this operating system. If you don’t want to invest in a new computer, I suggest using asneaker server. It will allow you to control your bot virtually.
  Google Cloud and Amazon AWS bill around$1-2/hour. How many hours you’ll need depends on how well you’re prepared to use your bot and the duration of a release.

• Gmail accounts.Gmail accounts that are used to help bypass CAPTCHAs. They cost around$1 each. It’s best to use no more than 2 Gmail accounts per task.

• Proxies.The price of proxies varies depending on the provider. Often their quality is determined by the price, so you probably shouldn’t be cheaping out. For instance,Proxydropcharges from$60 to $100 for 5GBof traffic (depending on the plan you choose). You can check our list of thebest sneaker proxiesto see which providers we recommend.

• Cook groups.Cook groupsare sneaker botting communities that share vital tips on how to cook releases. A cook group can cost anywhere from$20 to $60a month.

• Cash for the stock.This goes without saying, but you need to have additional cash to buy the stock. In the beginning, I don’t recommend buying a lot of pairs, unless you are certain that those are the holy grail.

To get a better idea, let’s put everything together. Imagine that you decide to get the Wrath AIO bot and run it on a sneaker server to cop 5 pairs of Adidas Yeezy 450 “Sulfur” on Yeezy supply. You decide to use approximately 50 Gmail accounts and purchase the Prestige plan from Proxydrop with 5GB of traffic.

• Wrath (renewal copy on BotBroker): $3500
• Sneaker server (2 hours to set up, practice and cop): $2
• 50 Gmails: $50
• Proxy Drop Prestige Plan 5GB: $100
• Cook group fee: $30
• 5 Pairs of Yeezys (if you succeed): $1000 ($200 for a pair)

Here’s the rough estimate:$3,782.

Of course, this is a pretty luxurious scenario. You could opt to rent a bot instead ($7-35 per day), forgo Gmails and a sneaker server. But I just wanted to illustrate that sneaker botting can be – and often is – expensive. It may include additional expenses that we haven’t covered here.

As you can see, sneaker copping is an expensive ordeal. It’s also complicated – at least in the beginning. So, the answer is: it depends.

To score Ws you need to do a lot of research. Get yourself familiar with the target store, its security measures, and release type. Make sure that you know exactly how your bot works and how to set it up as fast as possible. Research different copping setups. Watch YouTube videos of successful live sneaker copping. Learn as much as you can and practice.

Then, make sure that you’re copping the right shoes. You’ll need to recoup a solid investment, so make sure you know what you’re doing. Join cook groups, follow sneaker trend experts on Instagram and Twitter. Find out what others are cooking. This way you’ll be able to tell the difference between the holy grail and a brick.

Finally, don’t give up if you fail the first few tries. It takes time to get the grip on things, so you’re bound to burn a few proxies or accounts doing so.

Believe me, it’s a time-consuming process, but the more effort you put in the bigger your chances of copping are. Yes, you can make big amounts of money if you do everything right. However, keep in mind that profit is not guaranteed he

Is sneaker botting dead? I hardly doubt so.

The sneaker reselling market is highly unstable right now. That’s why many seasoned sneaker botters are aiming at easier targets, such as NFTs and GPUs. However, cooking sneakers is still profitable, especially if you do it right.

And even if you don’t succeed all the time, one of the most appealing things about sneaker copping is the community. Cooking shoes is an experience, and many sneakerheads stick around because of the people they can share it with.

So, do you think you have what it takes? Sure, it is a complicated process that requires a lot of time and money, but it’s still a good side hustle. If you decide to join the sneakerhead ranks now, I’m pretty sure that it’s not going to be easy, but it’s going to be worth it.