Sneaker culture has changed rapidly upon the onset of the digital age. As releases transitioned from storefronts to apps and online raffles, it’s only become increasingly more difficult to secure the pairs we actually want. Resellers have become the subject of much vitriol, as their abuse of bots have ultimately “ruined” a passion many would previously line up for days in advance.
As resentment towards resellers skyrocketed over the years, retailers have becoming implementing various countermeasures. But even despite this, these programs seemed to continue to dominate — especially on Nike SNKRS. The Swoosh, however, has come out to clear the air, expressing that SNKRS launches are protected from these bots in many ways.
Changed not long back, the Nike Terms of Service strictly prohibits the use of bots, and the brand reserves the right to flag and block any accounts that exhibit suspicious behavior. A number of tools help the Swoosh police this — such as telemetry measurements, account verifications, and tracking of IP reputation — making it easier to identify and remove bots from the platform.
According to Nike, bot submissions make up 10% to 40% of total submissions, all of which are marked invalid before winners are selected. As many as 20 million bot submissions are removed from SNKRS launches every month, and there are a team of engineers dedicated to dismantling the bots designed specifically to game the SNKRS platform. And though some of these submissions may slip through the cracks, Nike is continuing to make great strides in building up their defense, ensuring future sneaker releases are as fair as possible.
To learn more, head over to nike.com/inside-snkrs-bot-protection.
