StockX Shares Data About Top Basketball Sneakers

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Do championship rings fuel sneaker sales? According to StockX data, not necessarily. With the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend coming up, we have an early look at a comprehensive breakdown of the top-performing performance basketball sneakers on StockX.

For the analysis, StockX data scientists looked at 15 different athletes and ranked their top-traded silhouettes by total sales and average resale prices. Below are five key highlights that illuminate the state of basketball sneaker culture.

1) Today’s players don’t need hardware or decades in the league to prove their worth – two of the three best-selling signature shoes last year belonged to Ja Morant (No. 1) and LaMelo Ball (No. 3), neither of which have a championship under their belt. StockX saw more than 40,000 trades (sales) of Nike Ja 1 sneakers in 2023 and nearly 25,000 trades of LaMelo Ball's PUMA MB.02 sneakers.

2) The sneaker silhouette with the highest average price premium belongs to Devin Booker's Nike Book 1 'Chapter 1' colorway. With an extremely limited first release, the orange colorway boasts an average resale price of $939 and an average price premium of 526% on StockX. (This is a perfect example of how supply and demand impact prices on the secondary market.)

Second on the list is the Nike Kobe 6. This is also a supply and demand story – this sneaker was shelved for ten years and brought back in late 2020 with the Nike Kobe 6 Protro 'Grinch' colorway. Across all Kobe 6 models on StockX, the average price in 2023 was $444, and the average price premium was 152%.

3) Looking at the best-selling signature shoes for each player, we see a strong preference for newness. From Kevin Durant's Nike KD 15 to James Harden's adidas Harden Vol. 7, buyers are seeking out the latest releases. In a category like basketball, performance and innovation really matter because customers are more likely to be wearing these shoes on the court.

4) StockX is also seeing more brand diversity, with players like PUMA, New Balance, and Under Armour penetrating the performance market with signature shoe deals.

5) There's also something to say about price points. It seems as if accessibility is a bigger priority in performance basketball. Giannis Antetokounmpo's Nike Giannis Immortality is a perfect example – the average price for that sneaker in 2023 was just $78 on StockX.

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