With a reported assist from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the sneakers and collectibles marketplace could go public with an IPO in a matter of months.
Ten years ago, Josh Luber launched Campless: a resourceful website that served as a Beckett for basketball shoes and collectible kicks so that sneakerheads could as alluded, camp out and line up less.
Years later in 2015, that data-driven idea was rebranded as StockX: a marketplace for high heat items that lives in app, online and retail form. Backed by Quicken Loans founder and Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert and headquartered in Detroit, Luber’s passion project has since transformed the who, the how, and the why of sneaker culture and consumption.
And in 2022, the platform that’s since expanded to streetwear, trading cards, and other collectibles could be going public — and it could happen awfully fast.
As reported by Bloomberg and cited by Seeking Alpha, StockX is eyeing an IPO with help from Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. As recently as April 2021, the company was valued at a whopping $3.8 billion.
While a marketplace for your marketplace may seem like an idea poised by Xzbit on MTV’s Pimp My Ride, the evolution of StockX speaks to the worldwide growth of collectible culture and the idea that drop products are legit portfolio assets.
Though this movement has soured some purists and alienated access to an extent, it’s also created capital and jobs while adding a level of safety and security to transactions.
In 2020, Luber left StockX and has since joined Fanatics. However, the company has continued to penetrate pop culture by bridging the gap between buyers and sellers of sought-after items all around the world.
And if these reports of a fast-tracked IPO come to fruition, the revolution is only in its beginning stages.
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