Sneaker Bots Explained
Bots Explained: How Do Sneaker Bots Work? – Queue-it
How do sneaker bots work?
Because sneaker bots are just software programs following instructions, they work in many ways.
On the simpler end, there are automated bots that scrape inventory information from a web page. For example, this YouTuber shows how he pulls inventory information from the page URL. This bot could then be used to notify the bot operator when there’s a re-stock of sneakers.
On the more complex end, there are sneaker bots that inject pre-recorded mouse and click behavior from human users to fool sophisticated bot mitigation software.
In one instance, a bot operator knew what signs the bot mitigation software looked for and spent hundreds of hours recording thousands of “human” interactions on the sneaker website. As the company’s VP of web security said, “We have not seen that level of investment and time and energy and building for exploits or bypasses in other markets. ”
RELATED: Everything You Need to Know About Preventing Sneaker Bots
Bot operators also go to great lengths to cover their tracks. The more sophisticated reseller bots will use proxies and VPNs to mask their IP addresses, for example. This makes it appear the bots are coming from unconnected, individual residential addresses instead of one coordinated address.
Sneaker bots go by many names. AIO bot, KodaiAIO, NikeShoeBot, and GaneshBot are just a few. Some are custom-made to target certain retailers, like Foot Locker, Nike, or Adidas.
The best way to group sneaker bots is based on their functions.
Some bots have just one. Some have several. Here’s the most common types of sneaker bots and how they work.
Scraping bots
Like we saw above, scraping sneaker bots work by monitoring web pages to facilitate online purchases. These bots could scrape pricing info, inventory stock, and similar information.
Here we can see the unfairness of sneaker bots.
Imagine a sneakerhead wanting to compete with this bot. The sneakerhead would need to sit at her computer, manually refresh the browser, and stare at her screen 24/7 until the re-stock happens.
She could only keep this up for a few hours. And what if the re-stock happens when she’s having lunch or using the bathroom?
Scraper bots don’t eat. They don’t take breaks. And they don’t tire out.
Humans have no chance to compete with them.
Footprinting bots
Footprinting is like scraping, but involves the bot probing and scanning the website. For example, a footprinting bot could search for live web URLs that haven’t yet been made public.
Footprinting bots were the culprits behind the cancelled Strangelove Skateboards x Nike SB Dunk Low collaboration. Strangelove wrote that “the raging botbarians at the gate broke in the back door and created a monumental mess for us this evening… We regret to inform everyone that tomorrow’s launch has been cancelled and we will not be selling them on the site. ”
The footprinting sneaker bots clearly accessed the products a day before the release even happened.
Account creation bots
For bot operators to finalize purchases, they need an account with the retail site. They can generate a list of free emails and then use an account creation bot to create hundreds or thousands of accounts in bulk.
Account takeover bots
Instead of creating new accounts from scratch, bad actors sometimes use bots to access other shopper’s accounts.
Both credential stuffing and credential cracking bots do multiple login attempts with (often stolen) usernames and passwords. In a credential stuffing attack, the bot will test the list of usernames and passwords to see if they allow access to the sneaker retailer’s site. A credential cracking bot will start with one value, maybe an email, and then test different password combinations until the login is successful.
Scalping bots
Scalper bots, also known as resale bots or reseller bots, are probably the most well-known kind of sneaker bot.
Scalper bots use their speed and volume advantage to clear the digital shelves of sneaker shops before real sneakerheads even enter their email address.
A typical scalper bot will “sit” on the sneaker product page, constantly refreshing to click “add to cart” the second the sneaker drops. It will let the bot operator complete any CATPCHA tests, then zoom through the checkout process, autofill billing and shipping information, and press “buy” at lightning speed—as little as 0. 2 seconds.
Denial of inventory bots
Ever wonder how you’ll see sneakers listed on secondary markets like StockX or eBay before the kicks even drop? Denial of inventory bots are to blame.
A perfect example of the sophisticated, next-gen bots, these bots add sneakers to online shopping carts and hold them there. They don’t buy them—at least not initially.
Holding sneakers in the cart denies other shoppers the chance to buy them. Often, discouraged sneakerheads will turn to resale sites and pay double or triple the MSRP to get what they couldn’t on the retailer’s site.
Only when a shopper buys the product on the resale site will the bot operator have the bot complete the purchase.
Cashing out bots
Some bot operators don’t just use bots to put sneakers in shopping carts. They’ll also use cashing out bots to validate stolen credit card information and then use the bots to buy the products reserved by their scalping or denial of inventory bots.
How can sneaker retailers prevent sneaker bots?
If bots were easy to stop, someone would have done it by now.
Bot operators use cutting-edge methods of attack. As a sneaker retailer, your defenses need to be just as sophisticated.
In practice this means you need a combination of tools and strategies tailored to bots’ diverse attack vectors.
Here’s a list of some actions you can take to prevent sneaker bots from ruining your sneaker drops.
1. Block known bot traffic
One telltale sign of bot traffic is outdated browser versions.
Real visitors should be using an up-to-date version of a browser, but bot scripts frequently run on outdated versions.
Cyber security company Imperva recommends blocking browser versions that are over 3 years old and CAPTCHAing browser versions over 2 years old.
CAPTCHA
End of life over 2 years ago
BLOCK
End of life over 3 years ago
Chrome version
< 73
< 65
Firefox version
< 66
< 60
Safari version
< 12
< 11
Edge version
< 44. 18
< 42
Updated as of March 2021. Release version history is available for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.
Traffic from data centers often comes from sneaker bots—in fact, 70% of bad bots emanate from data centers.
Scalpers and other bad actors can purchase server space in a data center and easily obtain hundreds of IP addresses.
That’s why Imperva also recommends blocking traffic from Digital Oceans, GigeNET, OVH Hosting, and Choopa, LLC data centers, and CAPTCHAing traffic coming from data centers.
Just like with the browser version, the most sophisticated bots won’t be making these mistakes. But you can take these decisive actions to cut down on low- to medium-sophistication bots.
2. Monitor & identify traffic
If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. So, if you don’t have tools to monitor and identify sneaker bot traffic, you’ll never stop it.
Professional bot mitigation platforms analyze behavioral indicators like mouse movements, frequency of requests, and time-on-page to identify suspicious traffic. For example, if a user visits several pages without moving the mouse, it’s most likely a bot.
Bot mitigation solutions help identify sneaker bots with digital fingerprinting. They look at known information like browser type, IP address, cookies, browser extensions, and so on to create a profile of users that can be flagged as suspicious.
Remember to look for bot mitigation solutions that monitor traffic across all channels—web site, mobile apps, and APIs. Sneaker bots can plug directly into retailer’s APIs to access products more quickly. You need to cover all entry points.
Finally, the best bot mitigation platforms use machine learning to constantly update to the threats on your specific web application. In the cat-and-mouse game of bot mitigation, your playbook can’t be based on last week’s attack.
3. Act on flagged traffic
Once you’ve identified suspicious traffic, you need to figure out what to do with it.
Your bot mitigation solutions should let you test suspicious traffic. Common tests include Google’s CAPTCHA and PerimeterX’s Human Challenge.
When you confirm visitors as bots, you need to tag and mitigate them. These actions range from blocking the bots completely, rate-limiting them, or redirecting them to decoy sites.
Logging information about these blocked bots can also increase your chances of preventing future attacks.
4. Filter bots with web traffic management
At airport security checkpoints, passengers are screened before they can proceed to their flight.
Similarly, a virtual waiting room acts as a checkpoint inserted between a web page on your website and the purchase path.
A virtual waiting room is uniquely positioned to weed out sneaker bots. It lets you run visitor identification checks before visitors can buy their sneakers.
And a virtual waiting room has the added benefit of providing a fair user experience during hyped sneaker releases. All early visitors are randomized when the sale starts, just like an old-fashioned sneaker raffle. Anyone arriving after the start of the sale gets their place in line in a first-come, first-served order—the gold standard of fairness.
Related: Protect Against Bad Bots & Prevent Abuse With a Virtual Waiting Room
5. Allocate time for after-sale audits
Even with the most bulletproof bot blocking strategy, some sneaker bots will still get through.
But just because the bot made a purchase doesn’t mean the battle is lost.
Dedicate resources to review order confirmations before shipping the sneaks. This is a strategy used by retailers including Walmart and Very, and can do much to boost consumer confidence that you’re truly trying to keep releases fair.
Review the orders and ask:
Are there multiple orders shipping to the same address?
Were several orders made using the same IP address?
Was the same credit card used by different customers?
Is there social media chatter from customers bragging about how they used bots to game your site?
The most advanced bot operators work to cover their tracks. They use residential proxies to obscure IP address and tweak shipping addresses—an industry practice known as “address jigging”—to fly under the radar of these checks. But taking a critical eye to the full details of each order can help identify illegitimate purchases.
What is a Sneaker Bot | Is it Legal & Work Mechanism Explained
What is a Sneaker Bot?
A sneaker bot, commonly referred to as a “shoe bot”, is a sophisticated software component designed to help individuals quickly purchase limited availability stock.
After using the bot to make purchases, bot users often resell the product at a higher price. As a result, customers become frustrated and the company suffers significant damage to its reputation.
Initially, sneaker bots were created to help their operators purchase a big quantity of limited-edition sneakers. Today, these bots are used to purchase any item in limited availability or products restricted to certain geographical regions.
How Do Sneaker Bots Work?
To use a sneaker bot, bot users need to enter data into the software, such as credit card information, name, and shipping address. Once they input the information, they can specify what the bot should purchase. This is usually achieved by entering a list of product URLs or keywords. Bot users may retrieve initial information (such as product URLs) from “cook groups” that offer support for botters.
Once the bot is initiated, the checkout process runs automatically and the bot can purchase goods faster than humans can.
Sneaker Bot Architecture
Operating a sneaker bot requires several components:
The bot itself
A proxy server
Proxy clients that provide IP addresses
The proxy server provides access to a large number of proxies, and can be used to parallelize the bot, running it multiple times against the same website.
The proxies give each instance of the bot a unique IP address. A bot uses multiple IP addresses to make it seem like multiple people are performing actions. For example, mass-entering into one online queue can increase the odds of actually making a purchase.
A proxy helps mask bots as multiple buyers. Otherwise, a targeted website can determine that all entries are from one source and ban the IP.
Are Sneaker Bots Illegal?
Sneaker bots are not illegal – they are not traded on the dark web or black market. In fact, most bot makers have websites, run advertisements, and publicly list their prices. As long as the purchases are made through the proper digital channels, using a sneaker bot is not considered illegal. However, sneaker bots do violate the terms and conditions defined by many websites.
The majority of retail stores are taking active steps to combat the use of sneaker bots. Supreme, Shopify, Foot Locker, Nike, and Adidas are all familiar with bots and regularly update online protections to prevent the use of these bots. These updates typically include coding changes designed to differentiate between bots and human users. However, bots quickly update their operating software to avoid new protective measures.
How Sneaker Bots Impact Customers and Online Businesses
Here are several ways in which sneaker bots negatively impact customer experience as well as the bottom line of businesses:
Damaged brand reputation—when a bot collects all stock, or makes it look like there is no stock by hoarding inventory, customer experience is negatively impacted. Bots prevent real customers from purchasing sneakers and other items in high demand. This causes frustration, making customers think the website cannot meet their needs. As a result, customers will not only look for another site for the current purchase, but they may also avoid returning to the same site or brand in the future.
Loss of revenue—because bots scoop up the inventory before real customers can make purchases, websites are essentially losing these potential customers. When this happens, websites cannot offer these lost customers other offerings or establish a better relationship. Previous customers cannot be reached out for loyalty offerings and new customers are lost. These impacts can have long-term consequences and siphon future returns.
Loss of brand loyalty—even if website owners make money by selling high-demand items to bot operators, they lose brand loyalty, which would cause ordinary customers to come back to buy additional items. A bot operator does not recommend online stores to friends or socialize with new products bought in stores like real consumers. That means they may have to work harder and spend more money to attract real consumers.
Increased infrastructure costs—website owners facing automated traffic flowing into their sites have to pay unnecessary bandwidth and infrastructure costs (and the human resources needed to support them). Scanners and bots cause massive spikes in traffic, typically between 10 to 100 times more than normal users, resulting in unnecessary overheads.
Slow website speed—bot traffic can significantly slow down a website and cause delays. Slow site speed frustrates consumers, who may abandon their purchase or stop using the site altogether. The result is a decrease in authentic conversions.
Distorted web metrics—fake bot traffic can skew analytics and make it difficult to understand real consumer behavior on a website, so website owners cannot optimize their site for conversions.
How Do Sneaker Bots Evade Detection?
Sneaker bot developers are familiar with the main bot detection mechanisms and do their best to bypass them. Here are several strategies used by sneaker bot developers:
Fake Browser Fingerprints
The most sophisticated sneaker bots create custom browser and HTTP fingerprints that appear to be real users. For example, they use certain browser features, apply fake user agents, delete the navigator, web driver property, and more.
Simulated Human Behavior
To be effective, a sneaker bot needs to imitate the behavior of human customers. This is why a bot does necessarily purchase goods at the fastest possible speed. Instead, it operates at a slower speed, emulating human activity, but strives to buy goods faster than other buyers. The bot mimics real mouse movements and touch screen events. It can also simulate keystrokes that regular human visitors typically make.
Residential IP Addresses
Low-end sneaker bots use data center proxies, but the most advanced bots rely on residential proxies. Because these proxies are more expensive than data center proxies, they are less abused and generally have better reputations, which makes it more difficult to detect bots.
CAPTCHA Bypass
A good sneaker bot can easily bypass CAPTCHA mechanisms. Bots use a variety of techniques to bypass CAPTCHA, including:
Using human assistance – offshore workers can solve a large number of CAPTCHA puzzles at a very low cost
Using image classification algorithms to solve image-based puzzles and logic-based algorithms for numeric puzzles
Using generative adversarial networks (GAN) to automatically generate creative solutions to complex CAPTCHA puzzles
Low Request Volumes per IP Address
As a result of using residential IP addresses, the number of requests per IP address is reduced. Unlike crawlers or bots that perform credential stuffing attacks, sneaker bots do not need to generate many requests. Users can also parallelize the sneaker bot with different browser instances that utilize multiple residential proxies. In this way, each IP used by the bot has a normal number of requests.
Imperva Bot Protection
Imperva provides an Advanced Bot Protection solution that can mitigate sneaker bots and other bad bots. Bot Protection prevents business logic attacks from all access points – websites, mobile apps, and APIs. It provides seamless visibility and control over bot traffic to stop online fraud, through account takeover or competitive price scraping.
Beyond bot protection, Imperva provides comprehensive protection for applications, APIs, and microservices:
Web Application Firewall – Prevent attacks with world-class analysis of web traffic to your applications.
Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP) – Real-time attack detection and prevention from your application runtime environment goes wherever your applications go. Stop external attacks and injections and reduce your vulnerability backlog.
API Security – Automated API protection ensures your API endpoints are protected as they are published, shielding your applications from exploitation.
DDoS Protection – Block attack traffic at the edge to ensure business continuity with guaranteed uptime and no performance impact. Secure your on premises or cloud-based assets – whether you’re hosted in AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Public Cloud.
Attack Analytics – Ensures complete visibility with machine learning and domain expertise across the application security stack to reveal patterns in the noise and detect application attacks, enabling you to isolate and prevent attack campaigns.
Client-Side Protection – Gain visibility and control over third-party JavaScript code to reduce the risk of supply chain fraud, prevent data breaches, and client-side attacks.
11 Best Sneaker Bots of 2021 – Good, Bad & Where To Buy | The VOU
Sneaker bots, a new concept to the world of fashion, are taking the industry by storm.
Simply put, sneaker bots are behind almost everything sneakers-related right now.
Sneaker bots have become critical tools to hardcore sneakerheads, sneaker spotters, resellers, and collectors.
These tools are also paired with residential proxies to avoid any blocks on sneaker online storefronts – check out this Smartproxy blog to learn more.
Sneaker bots are used to find the latest releases, buy, sell, boost online advertising and sales, and even copy sneaker designs.
With hundreds of exclusive sneaker releases dropping every year, accounting for hundreds of millions of dollars in profit, the sneaker bot business is growing fast.
In this article, I’ll detail the sneaker bot business, and introduce you to the best sneaker bots of 2021.
I’ll also share with you what we like and what we don’t like about each sneaker bot in this list.
Finally, at the end of the article, I’ll answer some of the most asked questions right now, such as: are sneaker bots illegal, how do sneaker bots work, and so on.
IN THIS ARTICLE:
Top 11 sneaker bots of 2021
What is a sneaker bot?
How do sneaker bots work?
Are sneaker bots illegal?
Do sneaker bots actually work?
How much does a sneaker bot cost?
What are the best sneaker bots?
Top 11 Sneaker Bots Of 2021
New sneaker bots join the market every year, but there’s no way to tell how they’ll perform.
Thus, rather than making a risky investment in unknown bots, it is better to focus on trialed and tested bots.
History shows that a bot that’s been performing well in the past, does well in the next years too.
In this guide, I’ve picked each sneaker bot based on past performance, features, and price.
I have also checked each sneaker bot’s Twitter account, discussions on Reddit, and lots of users’ reviews, to ensure each sneakerbot legitimacy and performance proof.
Without further ado, these are the best 11 sneaker bots of 2021 you can buy right now:
1.
GANESH BOT
Overall Score 7
From $500
PROS
CONS
Very easy to use with a fast return on investment, if you use it right.
Reselling price is very high, around 5k USD.
SUPPORT | 8/10
EASE OF USE | 7. 5/10
SUCCESS RATE | 8. 5/10
AVAILABILITY | 4/10
Ganesh is one of the best sneaker bots to perform on EU-based sites.
Catering for a part of the community that’s long been overlooked.
In terms of websites, Ganesh supports Footlocker EU, Footsites, Finishline, Solebox, Offspring, and many more.
With an applaudable performance on Footlocker EU and Footsites US.
Of course, that’s all great news for EU fam, but if you’re located in the US and want to run Ganesh.
Well, you can always resort to reshipping services. Even if they’re gonna add to your running costs.
Generally speaking, 2020 was a successful year for Ganesh users who copped the Mochas, Jordan 5 Oregon, AJ5 “What The”, Nike Sacai Vaporwaffle, AJ1 Lucky Green, and a lot more.
The retail price of Ganesh falls more into the higher range of prices at £550.
In addition to the renewal fees of $80/ 6 months. But, that’s nothing compared to its aftermarket price.
If you’re looking to buy Ganesh and can’t waste time waiting for a restock, it’ll cost you anywhere between $4500 and $5000.
Pretty pricey, but as with all great sneaker bots, copping the right pairs will pay you back very soon.
2.
CYBERSOLE AIO
From $300
Good retail price and fairly available, if you know where to look.
Support can be a total letdown at times, so rely on Reddit groups if you need help.
SUPPORT | 6. 5/10
SUCCESS RATE | 8/10
AVAILABILITY | 6/10
Cybersole is one of the most in-demand sneaker bots at the moment, at least on the secondary market.
Part of this goes to the excellent success rate it delivers.
Flipping a key of Cybersole, which is Out-of-Stock, could make you as much as selling 3 or 4 pairs of new Yeezys sneakers
Why does it cost so much? Well, because of the reselling bots.
So, if you want to get your hands on the Cybersole bot, before the next drop, you’ll need to pay a good sum.
Now, even if you’re short on cash, you can still cop Jordans and Yeezys, using Cybersole.
After all, the bot sneaker community is one of the most helpful you’ll ever join.
You can rent a good sneaker bot for a period as short as one day, or as long as a month and the bot renting business also applies to Cybersole.
Cybersole bot has earned this reputation by having a consistent and strong performance throughout 2020.
People using this bot have been successfully copping Supreme, Yeezys, Jordans, Off-whites, and streetwear items from Shopify, and Footsites.
Moreover, the bot’s success rate with Supreme merch is what made some critics call it ‘the best supreme bot of 2021‘.
3.
BALKO BOT
Overall Score 6. 8
From $250
Decent success rate and renting option is relatively cheap for those new to sneaker bots
Balko does not support Footsites.
SUPPORT | 7. 5/10
EASE OF USE | 7/10
SUCCESS RATE | 7/10
Another top sneaker bot in the business, Balko supports Shopify, Adidas, and Supreme.
Balko has a decent success rate, you gotta wait for a restock or buy it for the resale price of $1500 to $2000.
However, with Balko, renting is the cheaper and less time-consuming option.
Renting Balko bot isn’t that hard. First, check Twitter and Discord to find plenty of renting keys for a short period of time.
However, one negative point is that Balko does not support Footsites.
As you may know, most air Jordan sneakers drop on Footsites.
Running a bot that doesn’t cop off these sites means a major decrease in your ability to get some of the most coveted pairs of sneakers.
Along with all the cash you’re spending, and the cash you could’ve made flipping them.
4.
NSB BOT
Overall Score 7. 8
From $499
One of the easiest to use sneaker bots out there with a good success rate.
Higher priced bots for shoes than some competitor bots.
EASE OF USE | 8/10
SUCCESS RATE | 7. 5/10
AVAILABILITY | 8/10
NSB (Nikeshoebot) is another highly-performing All-in-one Bot in the sneaker industry.
And just like AIO bot, it supports Shopify, Footsites, Supreme, and many more sneaker shops.
In 2020, NSB’s name was mentioned among the top-scoring bots on most releases.
Among NSB’s best cops this year were the Jordan 1 Satin Snakeskin, Yeezy Carbon & Zyon, Travis Scott’s Cactus Trails, and thousands of Supreme pieces.
Nike snkrs bot NSB has been maintaining a consistent rate of success, so far.
Plus, being always-in-stock is what makes NSB one of the most sought-after bots.
Moreover, if you were to compare its retail price of $499/year with the resale value of OOS bots, NSB might actually win.
5.
AIO BOT
From $325
One of the oldest sneaker bots in the business, great availability, trust, and success rate.
The support can get better, especially for the operating age of the team behind the bot.
SUPPORT | 6/10
SUCCESS RATE | 6. 5/10
AIO Bot is the OG sneaker bot and a major sneaker bot.
It is the first name that comes to your mind when you think about copping, collecting, and reselling rare sneakers.
Right now, AIO Bot is one of the best sneaker bots in the business.
Not only in 2020 but ever since it launched back in 2014.
The bot supports Shopify, Adidas, Yeezysupply, and Footsites.
AIO Bot is also one of the easiest bots to run if you’re just getting started.
The price of $325 and the availability factor, make it one of the best sneaker bots ever.
In terms of numbers, AIO Bot users cooked on every single Air Jordan Release, including the AJ1 Royal Toe, Satin Snakeskin, Jordan 1 Smoke Grey, and a lot more.
And Yeezy-wise, The Adidas Yeezy 350 V2 Carbon, and Zyon were 2 of the best releases of 2020 and some of the best cops for AIO bot.
AIO Bot would cost you $325 with $69 renewal fees every 6 Months.
6.
KODAI SNEAKER BOT
From $175
Cheap sneaker bot (if rented) with a simple user interface.
Very high resale price with slow return on investment, at least for beginners.
Kodai might not have always been under your radar, but it’s been one of the best sneaker bots in the industry so far.
As an all-in-one bot, Kodai supports Adidas, Yeezysupply, Supreme, and Footlocker EU, and Shopify.
However, Kodai’s biggest strength is the Footsites US.
Since the bulk of sneaker stock drops there, running Kodai can increase your chances of copping, flipping, and cashing in.
Unless you buy it for the resale price, which falls between $6000 and $7000, then you’ll go short on money for a long time.
For that, it’ll take some time for Kodai to start paying you back.
Some of Kodai’s biggest moments of 2020 were:
The Jordan 1 Mochas, Yeezy Carbon, AJ1 Satin, and Jordan 12 Gold.
Check out their Twitter feed, for proof of success.
As for the usage, Kodai’s interface is smooth and relatively easy to use.
So if you’re still new to the sneaker bot business but can afford it, go for it; you shouldn’t have a hard time running and benefiting from Kodai.
7.
WRATH SNEAKER BOT
Overall Score 6. 4
From $350
Easy of use, with good results.
High retail price and a further subscription model that charges you every month.
Launching back in February 2018, Wrath bot is not new to the sneaker bot wars.
However, 2020 seems to be doing the bot justice.
The retail price of Wrath starts at $350 plus a monthly subscription.
But as cupcakes and rainbows as this price sounds, Wrath also follows the very trendy “Out-of-stock” model.
Making it impossible for you to get a key unless you pay the resale price for it.
Which, in the case of Wrath bot, is about $5000 to $6000!
Or you could stay glued to their Twitter account hoping for a restock.
Quite frustrating when you got a whole bunch of Yeezys lined up to drop soon.
Wrath cops sneakers from Footsites, Shopify, and Yeezysupply.
And for your weekly dose of pricey streetwear, Wrath also supports Supreme.
However, to continue on this copping journey, you must pay $125 every 6 months to keep sneakers coming through your windows PC or Mac.
So far in 2020, we’ve seen Wrath cop on almost all hyped releases with checkout numbers ranging from good to impressive!
Some of the biggest successes of Wrath bot would be the Yeezy Linens, Jordan 1 Royals, New Balance Casablanca, and of course Supreme.
8.
PHANTOM BY GHOST
Overall Score 6. 5
Good price, easy to use, and good support.
Sold as an AIO sneaker bot, but it lags updates with certain sites.
SUPPORT | 7/10
SUCCESS RATE | 6/10
Designed $300 for a decent all-in-one bot is not much to pay if we’re being honest.
And Phantom, the AIO Bot by Ghost is one that’s worth your cash.
However, when such a sneaker bot opts for an OOS business model, things get pricey.
So, if you’re aching to cop sneakers or Supreme using Phantom, brace yourself to shed anything from $1500 to $2000.
But even that is not a lot considering how much you can make when you play your cards right and cop smart.
Some of the latest successful drops for Phantom include the Yeezy Quantum Barium, Jordan 1 Royal Toes, Jordan 13 Flints, and Yeezy 700 MNVN Black.
And though its performance on Supreme wasn’t a match to its competitors’, Phantom still counts as an AIO bot.
One that’s actually compatible with Windows and Mac.
9.
EASYCOP BOT
$600/year
Great success rate, with an increasing number of verified checkouts.
Just out of beta testing, little things need ironing here and there, before it goes wrong.
EASE OF USE | 6. 5/10
AVAILABILITY | 7/10
Easycopbots best sneaker botsOne of the promising sneaker bots that joined the industry recently is Easycop Bot.
Known to be a Footsites only bot, Easycop is slowly getting the attention of sneakerheads on big releases.
In terms of performance, this sneaker bot has been getting an increased number of checkouts regularly.
With their recent success scored on the Yeezy Asriel release where they claim to have copped thousands of pairs.
And we can’t help but notice the big hype over this new bot.
The number of shoutouts and rate of engagement on Twitter is remarkable for a bot just out of beta testing.
As for the sites, Easycop supports Footsites only.
And it’s still not clear whether or not it will add more sites anytime soon. However, for a relatively new bot, Easycop’s performance on Footsites is quite remarkable.
Among its recent wins, we can mention the Black NMD HUs, the Yeezy 380 Natural and Carbon, and the Kobe “Bruce Lee” on which ECB scored a success rate of 95%.
At the price point of $600, Easycop is not so easy on the pocket.
But again compared to the crazy resell prices of OOS bots, it’s not a lot to pay for such performance.
However, if you’re into all-in-one bots and streetwear, ECB is not your bot.
10.
THE SHIT BOT
Overall Score 7. 5
$999/year
High-performance dedicated sneaker bot to Nike releases.
The price keeps changing which can be very confusing for starters.
We’ve focused more before on AIO bots and those specialized in wiping shelves of Footsites and Shopify.
But unless we talk about Nike bots, we’d be overlooking one major subsection of the sneaker industry.
Nike bots have always been a major part of the industry.
In fact, the whole sneaker botting scene kicked off with Nike bots back when Kanye was part of Nike and Nike Yeezys were the real deal.
Five or six years later, Nike bots are back in the spotlight, with Nike dropping most of the stock on hyped Dunk and Jordan releases.
And although BetterNikeBot is one of the oldest Nike bots around, it seems like The Shit Bot is taking the limelight lately.
With a unique character, one-of-a-kind UI, and lately great performance on SNKRS, The Shit Bot (No really, that’s its name! ) is considered one of the best Nike bots out there.
Scrolling through TSB Twitter, you can tell it performs very well and cops sneakers that aren’t accessible by other bots.
And well, when you add up the number of the Jordan 1 Mochas, AJ5 Off white sail and Nike Dunks copped, TSB’s users seem to be making some good cash!
According to their website, using TSB you can cop Nike sneakers from more than 45 different regions.
As for the retail price, the 10 Grand on the website might look freaky, but the actual retail/ restock price of this Nike bot is $299.
So it’s on the lower side of the price range.
11.
THE KICK STATION
Overall Score 6. 6
Good sneaker bot, once found! Great success rate and good support.
Very hard to get hold of, even the website requires an invitation of password access.
After a very successful year in 2019, TKS has had a rough time getting that same level of success in 2020.
So, if you’re looking to invest in a top-notch sneaker copping tool, TKS might not be the bot for you.
Best bots TKSTheKickStation, aka TKS, was one of the best sneaker bots in 2019.
With its power points being Footsites and Shopify-based websites.
TKS UI is considered a bit tricky to work with so it might not be the best bot for beginners.
However, at the price of $360, it is a fair investment if you consider the potential ROI if you cop.
The biggest downfall would be that it’s out of stock.
So you can’t just buy these shoe bots when you’ve saved up enough.
In fact, you’re probably doomed to pay the resale price which can go up to over $800.
But just in case you really need this bot, in particular, you can always rent it or buy it second-hand off Discord servers.
And that’s where most sneaker bot trading happens.
You just need to find a sneakerhead that’s not interested in whatever drop you’re copping.
Ultimate Beginner Guide To Sneaker Bots
This is the ultimate guide to everything sneaker bots right now!
I’ll show you how to use sneaker bots to increase your money-making chances exponentially, with minimal effort.
Right now, there are many bot services around and endless YouTube tutorials on how to use them.
But, before you start, you have to understand the business where sneaker bots are most used: reselling sneakers.
Rare, expensive, limited-edition sneakers, a good sneaker bot will help you find and sell them very, very fast.
The easiest way to explain how the reselling of sneakers works is via a parallel to concert tickets.
Most concert tickets re-sell for more than their retail price.
However, it is hard to know when someone decides to resell the ticket. For that, some clever buyers use automated bots to spot and buy them.
Just like the ticketing industry, the footwear industry is also run by bots.
Retailers, brands, and designers often speak out about the use of bots are a potential problem, attempting to stop them or to fight back.
More recently, KAWS announced that they were canceling and blocking orders made by bots.
Similarly, Berrics tricked one bot user into spending $11, 000 on a sneaker, while Kith used a similar bait-and-switch tactic to dupe someone into buying 21 pairs, or $1, 700 worth of “Wheat” Jordan 1s.
The sneaker bots war is ongoing, with both sides consistently re-positioning to gain new ground.
What Is A Sneaker Bot?
A sneaker bot is an application, or an automated script, designed and used to speed up the checkout process when buying products online.
Any computer can run a sneaker bot. However, large servers are preferred, given their extra processing speed.
Sneaker bots facilitate the purchasing of extremely rare or limited edition shoes that make their way to the aftermarket to be sold for profit.
Most Valuable Sneakers – adapted from ‘The Korea Economic Daily’.
Many of these shoes are nearly impossible to find and buy without using bots.
Why? Because there are hundreds like you, simultaneously “botting” the same sneakers, so there’s crazy competition right from the start.
The most usually botted sites are Supreme, Dover Street Market, Shopify stores like YeezySupply, and Footsites (Foot Locker, Champs, Eastbay, and Footaction), given that they regularly drop covetable pieces.
For more sneaker stores, check out our full list of best sneaker websites.
How Do Sneaker Bots Work?
In a nutshell, you type your information and purchasing details into the bot interface, such as your credit card, name, delivery address.
Then you instruct the bot on what to buy.
This part can be done in two main ways:
1. Just enter the URL (web address) of the product into the bot.
2. Provide the bot with the product name and other related keywords.
Buyers often search for early information (like the product URL) from so-called ‘cook groups’ which provide support to botters.
Once the bot is launched, it will automate the checkout process and purchase items quicker than is humanly possible.
In fact, a good sneaker bot can check out products in as little as 0. 2 seconds.
Without bots, shopping limited-edition releases would prioritize those with fast internet or close to the manufacturer’s server.
“In order for any release to be fair, everyone has to be using the same speed of internet. Moreover, everybody must be at the same physical distance from the servers, as that also affects the amount of time it takes to be first in line, ” said Erik Fagerlind from Sneakersnstuff.
Although it sounds simple, using sneaker bots can become quite complicated.
That is because you have to set up and use proxies, alongside a dedicated server and the bot.
Servers are preferred with bots because they increase the speed to which you are connecting to the site that sells rare sneakers.
Proxies are unique IP addresses that can be used to make you seem like you are multiple buyers, from different parts of the world.
For instance, if you want to enter into an online queue to buy the latest YEEZYs, the more entries you have, the higher the chances of completing your purchase.
If you don’t use proxies, the site will identify all your entries as one source, resulting in an IP ban.
After procuring a sneaker bot, a server, and proxies, it comes the training time.
You’ll have to get used to your sneaker bot, know the delays, how the targeted site works, and if it has bot protection.
The bot and user training part sometimes takes months as it is not something you pick up once you get the bot.
Also, buying an expensive bot won’t assure you to get sneakers.
There are sneaker bot users, usually, the people copping and cooking shoes, that have been in the sneaker-reselling game for a long time.
They know this business from the back of their head, so remember that in your early days. It might take some time.
1. Sneaker Bot Proxy
There are Unknown proxies, Oculus proxies, Shadow and Leaf proxies.
But, the most popular types of proxies are ISP and residential.
Residential proxies are needed for sites with very high bot protection.
Most residential proxies are rotating the provided IP addresses while, on the other hand, a data center doesn’t rotate IP addresses.
So if the IP gets banned, it’s banned and you have to wait until you’re unbanned.
2. Sneaker Bot Proxy
There are Unknown proxies, Oculus proxies, Shadow, and Leaf proxies.
3. Gmail Accounts For Sneaker Bots
Gmail accounts are needed for four different sites: Supreme, Yeezy Supply, Footsites, and Shopify.
When a CAPTCHA message pops up, Gmails make it easier for you to solve the CAPTCHA, and thus, it gives you fast access time.
Ideally, you’ll use an aged Gmail account.
Aged Gmail accounts are from 2010 and even older.
There’s a black market for Gmail accounts, but the most wanted are old Gmail accounts.
Another way to get an aged Gmail account is from people that farm Gmail.
Gmail farms put a lot of activity on these accounts so they don’t look fake.
4. Virtual Credit Card Profiles
There are many ways to get credit cards for sneaker bots.
For once, there are virtual credit cards. Here’s how it works.
Most modern credit card providers have a feature called virtual cards that allows you to make unlimited cards.
Always use these virtual cards so your card does not get flagged and canceled.
As a form of bot protection, most sneaker sites no longer allow buyers to save profile checkouts anymore.
For that, use different credit cards, names, numbers, and addresses.
But, how do you use a different address on your card? It’s simple, you just jig on your virtual credit cards.
5. How To Jig On Credit Cards
Let’s say your address is 123 Apple St. It is a house, and it is just you living at that address.
But, by jigging, you’ll add a ‘Room 1’ to your address.
Then, on the next profile, you put ‘Room 2. ’
The third profile you put ‘Room 3 and so on, up to 500, if needed.
You can change room to an apartment (in the same house, 123 Apple St. ) and can go up to 10, 000 apartments.
In this way, jigging shows the company or the site that’s dropping the sneakers that this guy is not getting multiple pairs of shoes.
To them, these are all different addresses.
In reality, you’re just changing the room number, in your own house.
6. Sneaker Bots Updates
The developer of the bot pushes frequent updates.
Most sneaker bot developers tend to push updates every day.
Software updates are needed because the sites fight to ban the bots, and developers create patches or updates that allow them to fight back.
Usually, developers inform users on Discord when there’s an update available.
If you don’t update, your sneaker bot might not work as expected or, you might get a bunch of errors during the drop.
Are Sneaker Bots Illegal?
Sneaker bots are not illegal.
However, the use of sneaker bots goes against the terms and conditions of most websites.
Supreme, Shopify, Nike, and Adidas are aware of sneaker bots, and they all update their online protection against them on a regular basis.
However, sneaker bot developers are also quick to update their operating software in order to bypass any new protective measures.
These bot updates entail changes in coding that aim to tell the difference between a bot and a human user.
Although sneaker bots are legal, do not confuse them with ticketing bots, illegal in the USA.
Is Botting A Pyramid Scheme?
No, sneaker botting is not a pyramid scheme.
Sneaker manufacturers, sellers, and resellers are legit businesses run by legitimate people.
What sneaker botting does is the selective acceleration of the sneaker trade.
– What Are Retailers Doing To Combat Sneaker Bots?
Sneaker bots are something they “focus very much on“, said Simon Lister, marketing director at End Clothing.
“We’ve implemented a number of solutions designed to make life more difficult for bots. When we release limited products, we do so through our new Launches Platform. Instead of having a ‘first come, first served (FCFS) operational system in place, where bots triumph, we enter the customers in a raffle. Only the lucky winners will be able to purchase the limited items, ” added Simon.
Simon asserts that releasing limited products in this way is the only way of “ensuring fairness for customers”.
A lot of other retailers have since followed suit.
Chris Bone, general manager of Livestock, shares a critical outlook on sneaker bots, referring to bot users as “vampires” who “suck the life out of whatever it is they’re trying to make a buck off. ”
Bone also mentions that in-store releases and raffles are the way forward to combat the issue, stating that Livestock is constantly “working to get these releases into the right hands”.
Some retailers are now also implementing CAPTCHAs onto their site to try and stop bots.
Supreme has also tried this tactic, though it wasn’t successful – bots now allow you to log in to Gmail accounts, and if enough activity is monitored on the email account, the site will not ask you to solve a captcha.
Similarly, Simon Bus from SNIPES, mentioned that the brand “uses a market-leading system to successfully block bots, ” and that “suspicious orders, classified technically flawless by the system, are hand-checked by the staff”.
It means that even if you manage to get past their anti-bot protection, your order is still at risk of being canceled.
Do Sneaker Bots Actually Work?
Botters are now increasingly competing with other botters.
Some site, such as Adidas, YeezySupply, and Nike, release their products with a raffle-based system.
Each buyer enters a queue and then a small number of people are randomly selected to purchase the item.
While this might sound like it could eliminate the success of bots, this isn’t the case, as they are also used to put mass entries into queues and raffles.
So, while bots do not guarantee success, they drastically increase your chances of success.
How Much Does A Sneaker Bot Cost?
The average sneaker bot cost is $50-$60 a month.
However, you might not be able to get your hands on a bot, despite paying for it, because they barely restock for retail.
So if you can catch a sneaker bot for retail, it’s going to cost you from $300-$500 a year.
A good sneaker bot retail for £300 and even more. However, some of the most popular and successful bots are very hard to get.
There are cases when a sneaker bot user has paid £4, 000 to buy one of these top bots from a reseller.
`Ironically, it is actually harder to purchase the sneaker best bots at retail value than it is to get an average pair of collectible sneakers like YEEZYs.
If you’re going to pay resale, you could pay from $1, 000-$8, 000.
There’s a bot called Sole AIO, which goes for $2K, and Balko, which goes for $3K.
Cyber bot, for example, goes for seven grand or more, while Wraith bot sells for eight grand and up.
There are so many more sneaker bots we could keep naming but the main problem is finding one to buy.
Then, the costs add up as some people don’t have computers powerful enough, so they have to get a server.
A good server can cost you almost $80 to $100 a month.
Add to the cost proxies, which depends on how many tasks you run and how secure you want to be.
The average person runs 50 to 100 tasks on every release.
Proxies will help you hide your identity and the IP address from websites so they can’t block you from being a reseller.
A good proxy provider will charge you about $100-$150 a month.
Then, each aged Gmail account is about a dollar.
So you could end up paying $30 a month for Gmail accounts, used to help bypass CAPTCHAs on retailers’ websites.
And then you have extra expenses, such as Nike’s SNKRS accounts.
You can get them for about $1. 50 per account. However, SNKRS accounts get banned very quickly, so you could end up paying more.
I personally know people that pay $100 a month for SNKRS accounts, just because they keep getting reset.
Overall, you’re looking at an expense of $800-$1, 000 per month to be successful.
Based on my calculations, the cheapest way to use a bot and resell sneakers will cost you at least $600 per month.
What Are The Best Sneaker Bots?
There are a couple of bot types and bots names you must know about when going into the sneaker reselling market.
There are going to be Shopify bots, Nike bots, Adidas bots, Footsites bots, Supreme bots, and Yeezy Supply bots.
The best bots for these sites are going to be Cybersole AIO, Balkobot, Splashforce, Polaris, MEKPreme, VeloxPreme, Wraith, and Nike Shoe Bot.
The best and most popular sneaker bots occasionally restock, and due to the unprecedented demand, they sell out in seconds.
We tapped a UK-based sneaker bot developer who chose to remain anonymous, to ask what he’s doing to stay ahead of retailers and brands.
“I don’t think that retailers can win this cat and mouse game of anti-bot protection. I put it down to 2 main factors:
Firstly, it is expensive and time-intensive for retailers and brands to attempt “patching” the plethora of sneaker bots out there.
Secondly, where there is demand, there’s money… and a way around.
Right now, there’s crazy money to be made in the botting industry. See for example the developers of ‘Cyber bot’, boasting that their users collectively spent over 30 million dollars in the last year. “
Personally, I don’t recommend buying all-in-one (AIO) bots. That’s because they don’t really work.
Why? Well, there’s no bot that supports every site.
The sellers will market these bots as fully compatible with all sites but, because all sites change so much so fast, the developers can’t keep up.
To get your own sneaker bots, you have to follow the developers on Twitter.
There you can be the first to know if they do restocks, when, where, and how.
The most interesting part of the sneaker bots business is that there are bots designed to let you know when to get the restocks.
Simply put, people use bots to buy bots.
However, most people are getting their bots from resale or restocks.
Usually, you can get a bot from $1, 000-$8, 000.
The most popular top 3 resale markets for bots are BotBroker, Bot Mart, and Tidal.
Above all, don’t get scammed.
Often, when people buy bots, they go through middlemen.
There are people that join those bot marketplaces and impersonate real middlemen with fake names and accounts.
Final Words
If you want to buy a sneaker bot just to get yourself a pair of rare sneakers, I wouldn’t recommend it.
That’s because you might not succeed for the first time and things will become increasingly expensive, soon.
There is another important to know; not everyone in the sneaker bot business is getting rich.
You should know that this is not an easy business and it’s not like you’re going to be making instant money.
It’ll take you six months to a year to get the ball rolling as nothing happens overnight.
Finally, if you’re serious about using a sneaker bot, this article should give you a headstart over the competition.
You know what you’re dealing with, where to start, and who to trust.
Also, keep in mind that the sneaker industry is ever-growing.
The industry’s growth calls for new sneaker bots to join every season.
And, while some new bots might not have (yet) the reputation of OG sneaker bots, there’s a chance they’re going to be even better.
So, keep an open mind, heart, and an eye on this article for future sneaker bots updates!
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Now it’s your turn…
What is your favorite sneaker bot in 2021 and why?
Do you think online stores will be able to stop sneaker bots from working in the future? If yes, how?
Do you think AI will play a role in the market of sneaker bots? If yes, how?
Would love to hear your thought below!
Frequently Asked Questions about sneaker bots explained
What is a bot for sneakers?
A sneaker bot, commonly referred to as a “shoe bot”, is a sophisticated software component designed to help individuals quickly purchase limited availability stock. After using the bot to make purchases, bot users often resell the product at a higher price.Aug 10, 2021
Do people use bots on sneakers?
Sneaker bots are used to find the latest releases, buy, sell, boost online advertising and sales, and even copy sneaker designs. With hundreds of exclusive sneaker releases dropping every year, accounting for hundreds of millions of dollars in profit, the sneaker bot business is growing fast.Feb 22, 2021
