BUY MY SNEAKER was established in 2015, a time when the sneaker culture in South Africa was quite small. Reselling wasn’t a thing yet and there was no hype around sneakers. It was mostly made up of the different groups of people who grew up appreciating and understanding sneakers and what they represented.
At this point, BMS launched as an online store. We had some OG Jordans, some high-end fashion items, the Kanye West Yeezy Nike collection, and what we didn’t see on shelves in SA at the time.
The online store went on up until 2018, and at this point, the hype around sneakers began to pick up drastically. There were a lot of resellers coming out and businesses were being created around the same concept that our business thrived on up until this point.
This is when we realised that we needed to evolve and create some unique to stand out in what was looking to become a very overpopulated market.
After a lot of research and planning into the whole sneaker industry which was already very huge internationally, we came up with a new concept that we believed to be the future of our company.
The issue that we faced was that such a project was going to need a lot of resources to build, and we weren’t sure if our idea was going to work in the market. So we decided to create a basic version of the project and see how things would go.
A few months later, on June 4th, 2019, the BUY MY SNEAKER app was launched. This initial version wasn’t anywhere near our vision, but it was enough to bring something completely different to the fast-growing market. In the first month, the app generated over 200 sales which was a huge surprise to us.
We created this platform on a budget as an experiment, and over the past 2 years, it allowed our business to grow significantly. It allowed us to enter a level that allowed us to work with some of the biggest personalities, celebrities and influencers. This meant that not only did we attract the newcomers to the sneaker and streetwear market, but it allowed us to begin operating in a higher-end sneaker market which meant that we could begin sourcing some of the most limited sneakers in the world because we found a market for it.
And just when everything was going extremely well for BMS, the pandemic hit. It seemed like it was the end of this niche market because of the huge financial factor that came with the worldwide shutdown. But again, to our immense surprise, the demand for sneakers just exploded.
2020 was by far the most successful year for BUY MY SNEAKER up until that point. It was a defining moment. BMS was no longer just this platform for sneakers — It became a brand. This meant that just 2 years after launching our budget project, we were finally able to invest in our initial vision.
In January 2021, we completely rebranded the company. The entire brand presence, marketing, advertising, and operations were re-imagined to represent this new and improved version of BMS. We were able to expand our team, get an additional facility, and create a dedicated sourcing service. We were finally ready to begin development on the platform that we wanted to build back in 2017.
Over the course of 2021, we had a lot going on thanks to all the support from the community. We also had a lot going in behind the scenes as we were building the new platform and preparing for a new era for the company. Our idea was to host an exclusive event by the end of the year to finally unveil and present the brand new BUY MY SNEAKER.
In October 2021, we were approached by Häagen-Dazs, the huge international premium ice cream brand, to collaborate with them on an activation at one of their stores. This couldn’t have come at a better time, as it was the perfect time for us to show off what we were working on all year long.
On 13 November 2021, BUY MY SNEAKER took over the entire Häagen-Dazs store in Johannesburg at the Mall of Africa to host an exclusive event. This was a huge milestone for us because we were able to collaborate with such a huge brand and were able to present our brand on this new level. The event was extremely successful and opened up a lot of doors for us.
You can browse learn more about the BUY MY SNEAKER x Häagen-Dazs collaboration here.
It is now December 1st 2021 and after an incredible ride, BUY MY SNEAKER has launched the new BMS 2.0 Sneaker Marketplace App for South Africa.
