Fake Friday: Footroen
As soon as celebrities and high-end brands enter the streetwear scene, the lead up is almost as hyped as the actual drop. This becomes very relevant and actually quite helpful when understanding the world of sneakers, reselling and replicas.
Before the month is over, we looked at which store you wanted us to uncover for this episode of Fake Friday, and so we bring you Footroen. It is no surprise that we get dm’s about the legitimacy of this store across all our platforms because of their curated website and large Instagram following.
In last month’s episode we spoke about ways to identify if a sneaker is legit or not, this meant looking at their socials, available size curves, and seeing if price-points were in line with the product as well as consistent with other established streetwear websites. If you don’t know sneaker culture well enough to know what prices should be or which collabs or special releases are rare to come by, knowing what authentic sneaker prices are and which resellers actually have comparative pricing can all get very confusing.
Footroen fits the exact set-up that was seen on Shelfyourshoes: every item has a discount/sale price, sneakers are available in all sizes (UK3-UK9), and any sneaker you can think of is always in stock… no matter how difficult it is to find. All of these are red flags. If you are still uncertain, a good way to confirm your suspicions is to look at collabs done with famous celebrities, extremely hyped products or brands that have their own websites, as there is a lot of information on this and does not require a deep-dive or extensive sneaker knowledge.
One of the most sought-after sneakers which is difficult to find in sizes and which has a higher price point than most Jordan’s is the Travis Scott x Air Jordan 1 High ‘Mocha’. Just by Googling “Travis Scott Jordan,”, you get the answer immediately on the results page, and without doing in-depth research or needing to go to specific sneaker sites. When Googling this shoe in particular, the price at certified resellers like Farfetch and La Familia ranges from R30k to R50k. Places that sell this Jordan for their original retail price of $160 (R2990,98) are stores that are supplied directly by Jordan and this collab particularly was only at “select Jordan Brand stockist” as outlined on Hypebeast. This sneaker was also sold out at stockists and are only available for resale. Footroen tells us in their Instagram bio that they are “not affiliated with any brands” which means they are not retailer’s of Jordan Brand and so their access to products would be limited and they are resellers. It is surprising then that they have the Travis Scott Jordan for a marked down price of R3324,99 and that the sneaker is available in a size curve of UK3 up to UK9.
This is just one example from Footroen’s extensive website and is not limited to sneakers. They sell Justin Bieber’s brand, House of Drew, for unbelievable prices as well. On the official Drew House website, a smiley hoodie is R3,150.00 and has limited sizes. Footroen sells the same hoodies for R999 marked down to R949,05 and in all sizes.
They sell Panda Dunks for a sale price of R1747,99 in all sizes while resellers sell them for R5k in limited size offerings. Its surprising that they Footroen would even have these when Sneaker News wrote an article talking about how Nike was set to re-stock this colourway since it had been “selling out at retail almost immediately and fetching decent payouts on the after-market.” Footroen also sells the infamous Loewe Anagram tee which retails on Loewe’s official website for $550 (R10147,04), for the sale price of R1519,99.
Footroen’s Instagram is also very interactive and seems to offer good customer response, which sets any business up for success. They have a 'Why Us?' highlight, dedicated to proving their legitimacy which seems suspicious for an established store. In this highlight people talk about the products not being legit and then Footroen “disproves” this. They also claim to let customers write a review on their website which is not actually an option on their website. There are almost no reviews on the internet on Footroen and their 'Why Us?' highlight claims that they have 100% legitimacy on Scam-Detector when it’s actually only 51.9%. Unfortunately, Footroen aren’t being open with their customer basis by not disclosing that the products are reproductions.
As is common with stores that sell replica’s which they claim to be originals, the website does not have any 'About Us' information. A lot of Foortroen’s website is incomplete with menu items not linking to any relevant info. For example, their ‘Payment Methods’ and ‘Terms & Conditions’ all link to their ‘Shipping & Returns.’ The website does look really clean and professional, especially with their images from Nike.com, their Newsletter, Gift Card option and Loyalty Program. All of this sets Footroen up as a store that would appear to sell originals, which of course can make it difficult to differentiate as a customer really wanting a specific item.
Just like Footroen, we also want to “Empower people in streetwear,” and letting people know that they are buying replica products under the guise of it being legit is empowering. Letting people spend thousands of rands on an item that is not real, is unfair to customers especially when to the unknowing eye, they think they’re buying real products for a good price.
We of course respect everyone’s hustle and wouldn’t bat an eye had Footroen owned the fact that they sell remakes or if we hadn’t gotten loads of enquiries about the legitimacy of the store. We love that the everyone on the streets wants to look fly, and so we have to keep the streets clean!