A Look Inside eBay’s Wear ‘Em Out Fairfax Sneaker Pop-Up

Drew Grant

Drew Grant is dot.LA's Senior Editor. She's a media veteran with over 15-plus years covering entertainment and local journalism. During her tenure at The New York Observer, she founded one of their most popular verticals, tvDownload, and transitioned from generalist to Senior Editor of Entertainment and Culture, overseeing a freelance contributor network and ushering in the paper's redesign. More recently, she was Senior Editor of Special Projects at Collider, a writer for RottenTomatoes streaming series on Peacock and a consulting editor at RealClearLife, Ranker and GritDaily. You can find her across all social media platforms as @Videodrew and send tips to drew@dot.la.

eBay’s Wear ‘Em Out pop-up store opened its doors on Fairfax for Memorial Day weekend.
Photo by Joshua Letona

When you first move to Los Angeles, one of the strangest sights is the blocks-long queues of people waiting patiently to get into a handful of micro-boutiques on Fairfax Avenue, where four doors down from the Supreme store you could go for a nosh at Cantor’s Deli.

One line on Friday stretched impossibly long—past the intersection of Rosewood, where it swapped to the other side of the street, young men leaning against the chainlink fences of Walt Whitman High School’s football stadium. If you squinted, it almost looked like the line stretched all the way past Melrose, a third of a mile away.


Every single person in line was hoping to get into eBay’s three-day sneaker pop-up, Wear ‘Em Out. Yes, the “We Sell Your Stuff on eBay” store seen in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” is now a reality—except for the notable difference that eBay is the one doing the selling, off-platform.

The location’s proximity to Supreme doesn’t seem like a coincidence; the store’s real estate, tiny space and limited selection cultivated an air of exclusivity and scarcity. This can boost hype, but also emboldens entrepreneurial-minded buyers with deep pockets to take advantage of the small supply—snatching up as much stock as possible to resell at a future date.

To combat this phenomena while still trying to stoke the “hype” in hypebeast was the challenge; a “one pair per customer” rule can be enough to thwart some potential buyers from going near the place, while not exactly being the hardest system to game. But Wear 'Em Out had found a different kind of incentive system—offering steep discounts to anyone willing to actually put the shoes on their feet and walk them out the door. The catch was that they’d first have to navigate a short obstacle course of gravel, fake grass and sooty rocks; say bye-bye to the coveted NIB (New In Box) label that bumps shoes up from their retail price to thousands of dollars or more on secondary selling platforms like Grailed, GOAT, StockX, and eBay itself.

“People are treating sneakers like investments,” according to Garry Thaniel, eBay’s general manager of sneakers. “We love our sellers, but wanted to embrace the idea that everything doesn't have to be a business decision. Sometimes it’s just about enjoying them.”

Thaniel was wearing a fresh pair of Nike Air Force Ones, a blinding white sneaker notoriously unforgiving to scuff marks. That’s kind of the point; growing up in Baltimore, Thaniel recalled, come April or May everyone would show up wearing the pristine sneakers only to see them worn out by the end of the summer. The next spring would bring new shoes, and the cycle began again.

Here’s a taste of what was in stock on Friday:

  • The New Balance 2002R "Protection Pack" in Sea Salt ($385)
  • A Nike x Travis Scott Air Max 270 "Cactus Trails" collab ($400)
  • 2 different versions of the Yeezy Boosts: a 700 Bright Blue ($355) and the 350 V2 Dazzling Blue ($415).
  • 4 different Air Jordans: Retro 1 “'Cool Grey” 2021, ($335); Retro 6 "UNC White" ($325); 1 Retro High "OG Patent Bred" ($330); 1 Retro High 85 “Georgetown” ($425);
  • The Union x Nike Dunk Low “Passport Pack - Pistachio” ($650).

Each pair would cost $100 less to wear out the door.

Peak Inside eBay's Sneaker Pop-Up Retail Shop

Photo by Joshua Letona

eBay’s Wear ‘Em Out pop-up store opened its doors on Fairfax for Memorial Day weekend.

While he couldn’t give us any more specifics on the following days’ selection, Thaniel told dot.LA that every collection was put together by Offset, he of the popular hip-hop group Migos.

And what did Thaniel think about moving eBay’s sneaker game to a permanent brick-and-mortar location, a la Amazon Style’s new store on the other side of town in Glendale?

“That would be a great idea,” Thaniel mused. “We’d have to talk internally about it.” He mentioned that eBay’s policy of collaborating with sellers had led to this prime real estate, since they were technically operating in a portioned section of SoleStage’s already diminutive interior.

Leaving the store, a scroll through my phone revealed an interesting development: Gucci, the renowned legacy Italian loafer brand, had just opened its first location in the metaverse.

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LA Tech ‘Moves’: LeaseLock, Visgenx, PlayVS and Pressed Juicery Gains New CEOs

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

LA Tech ‘Moves’: LeaseLock, Visgenx, PlayVS and Pressed Juicery Gains New CEOs
LA Tech ‘Moves’:

“Moves,” our roundup of job changes in L.A. tech, is presented by Interchange.LA, dot.LA's recruiting and career platform connecting Southern California's most exciting companies with top tech talent. Create a free Interchange.LA profile here—and if you're looking for ways to supercharge your recruiting efforts, find out more about Interchange.LA's white-glove recruiting service by emailing Sharmineh O’Farrill Lewis (sharmineh@dot.la). Please send job changes and personnel moves to moves@dot.la.

***

LeaseLock, a lease insurance and financial technology provider for the rental housing industry named Janine Steiner Jovanovic as chief executive officer. Prior to this role, Steiner Jovanovic served as the former EVP of Asset Optimization at RealPage.

Esports platform PlayVS hired EverFi co-founder and seasoned business leader Jon Chapman as the company’s chief executive officer.

Biotechnology company Visgenx appointed William Pedranti, J.D. as chief executive officer. Before joining, Mr. Pedranti was a partner with PENG Life Science Ventures.

Pressed Juicery, the leading cold-pressed juice and functional wellness brand welcomed Justin Nedelman as chief executive officer. His prior roles include chief real estate officer of FAT Brands Inc. and co-founder of Eureka! Restaurant Group.

Michael G. Vicari joined liquid biopsy company Nucleix as chief commercial officer. Vicari served as senior vice president of Sales at GRAIL, Inc.

Full-service performance marketing agency Allied Global Marketing promoted Erin Corbett to executive vice president of global partnership and marketing. Prior to joining Allied, Corbett's experience included senior marketing roles at Disney, Warner Bros. Studios, Harrah's Entertainment and Imagi Animation Studios.

Nuvve, a vehicle-to-grid technology company tapped student transportation and automotive sales and marketing executive David Bercik to lead the K-12 student transportation division.

This Week in ‘Raises’: Curri Scoops Up $42M, Mosaic Scores $26M

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

Raises
Image by Joshua Letona

A local logistics platform raised fresh funding to put toward product development, infrastructure and sales and marketing initiatives, while a San Diego-based fintech company closed its Series C funding round to expand its investment in AI which will empower high-growth SMB and mid-market finance leaders.

***

Venture Capital

Curri, a Ventura-based logistics platform, raised a $42 million Series B funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners.

San Diego-based financial platform Mosaic raised a $26 million Series C funding round led by OMERS Ventures.

AHARA, a Los Angeles-based startup focused on providing personalized nutrition suggestions, raised a $10.25 million seed funding round led by Greycroft.

Per an SEC filing, San Diego-based developer of peptide therapeutics designed to assist in the treatment of autoimmune diseases and disorders selectIon raised $5 million in funding.

Miscellaneous

Los Angeles-based Sensydia, a company working on non-invasive cardiac diagnostics, said this morning that it has received $3 million in a NIH grant.

Raises is dot.LA’s weekly feature highlighting venture capital funding news across Southern California’s tech and startup ecosystem. Please send fundraising news to Decerry Donato (decerrydonato@dot.la).

Why a Downturn in Esports Investments Isn’t Something To Fear

Samson Amore

Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.

Why a Downturn in Esports Investments Isn’t Something To Fear
Samson Amore

Last year, global venture capital investment in esports dropped by more than 40%. Investors have been rapidly selling off teams and franchises, and the industry has witnessed a consistent decline in ad spend. This has prompted many critics to coin the term “esports winter,” referring to a fall-off in the industry, an indication that VCs believe their investments didn’t achieve success as expected.

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