A few months after StockX declared that the “sneaker resale market isn’t dead,” the company announced a new chief executive. Co-founder Greg Schwartz, who has been chief operating officer at StockX since its 2016 launch, will take over as CEO on New Year’s Day, the company said Friday.
Scott Cutler, an early investor who has been CEO since 2019, has decided to leave as of Dec. 31 but will remain an adviser. The rotation at the top comes about a month after the sneaker marketplace brought on former Tommy John executive Nick Karrat as chief marketing officer. He replaced Deena Bahri, who exited along with a number of executives earlier in the year.
In a statement, Schwartz said he has “worn a number of hats” at StockX since its founding in Detroit in 2016, culminating in the appointment as CEO.
"As we look to the next phase of the StockX journey, I intend to double down on our brand growth and product innovation to deliver best-in-class customer experiences that will help us to continue to scale globally,” he said.
In a “State of Resale” report released in August, StockX pushed back against the notion that sneaker resale is dead, “despite headlines claiming otherwise,” saying it is changing instead. Based on global sales during the first seven months of the year, “fast-growing challenger brands like Asics are superseding mainstream giants like Nike, Jordan, and Supreme,” the company said.
The company recently chose Walmart as its first third-party marketplace partner, citing “Walmart’s vast customer base – many of which are new to StockX.” But the resale space has declined, in part due to the approach of many of its players, according to Matt Powell, senior adviser with BCE Consulting.
“The resale market is not as robust as it had been. In order to get growth, brands stuffed the market with ‘limited’ shoes, which meant they were no longer limited,” he said by email. “Resale prices plunged. In some cases, shoes were reselling under MSRP. Resale platforms tried to pivot to other collectibles (watches, handbags, etc.) but nothing has proved to be as lucrative as sneakers once were.”
