GOAT adds apparel and accessories to sneaker marketplace

Dive Brief:

Sneaker resale platform GOAT announced Monday that it has expanded beyond sneakers to offer apparel and accessories. The company added 50 new brands to its product offerings, including Acne Studios, Off-White and Gucci, among others.
Apparel and accessories are only available on the company's iOS and Android app. The new categories will roll out next to the website as well as to a WeChat Mini Program in China, a company press release detailed.
"We're only in the infant stages of apparel on GOAT," Daishin Sugano, co-founder and chief product officer of GOAT Group, said in a statement. "We're starting with the primary market, but we have plans for resale expansion."

Dive Insight:

Perhaps recognizing limits in sneaker resale, GOAT is expanding its offerings beyond footwear. But doing so isn't cheap.

In February 2019, Foot Locker announced a $100 million investment in GOAT Group, which owns GOAT.com and consignment retailer Flight Club. That infusion of capital brought GOAT Group to $197.6 million raised in just four years. Luxury powerhouse LVMH invested an undisclosed amount into sneaker and apparel marketplace Stadium Goods early last year, only to have Farfetch snatch up the reseller in December 2018 for $250 million.

But GOAT and Stadium Goods, two solid players in the resale sneaker space, also have strong competition in StockX, which has a $1 billion valuation and resells handbags and watches along with shoes and streetwear.

The challenges of authenticating luxury and near-luxury goods has the potential to slow down any of these companies, if not the entire secondhand apparel and footwear market. Luxury resale website The RealReal in April reportedly authorized enough shares for a $70 million raise to push it to achieve unicorn status. And not too long after, the company went public this summer. But The RealReal has also faced claims that its authentication processes aren't sufficient.

"When we first launched GOAT, we focused only on sneakers to ensure we provided the best experience for our customers," Eddy Lu, co-founder and CEO of GOAT Group, said in a statement. "Paramount to that was our authentication, product depth and discovery journey."

GOAT recently added a "Try On" feature to its app that shows an augmented reality image of a pair of shoes on the user's feet. The feature is reserved for the service's rarest shoes, which can have price tags into the five figures. The company reports it has 20 million members across 164 countries.