Want to get those limited edition Nikes or win the next Supreme drop?
No matter which site you’re copping, you'll need not only a good bot, but also
some quality proxies. So, let’s talk sneaker proxies & find out which ones are the best.
But first of all, why do you need proxies for copping sneakers?
If you try to buy sneakers without proxies, the site you’re buying from will get to see your
computer’s IP address. It’s a way for websites to identify you. So, if your bot tries to get you
those sneakers by sending many requests, the shoe store will see that they're all coming from the
same computer, which means you’re using a bot. So you’ll be banned for a few minutes. Unfortunately,
in those few minutes the sneakers will be sold out. Sorry, good luck in the next drop!
But if you use proxies, they will hide your IP from the sneaker store
and this way protect you from bans.
Here at Proxyway, we test and review proxies to help choose the best ones.
So if you want to learn more about proxies, subscribe to our channel.
Ok, so what type of sneaker proxies should you choose?
There are two types of shoe sites, and each requires a different approach.
The first type includes Supreme and some Shopify sites. Shoe releases there are based on the first
come, first served basis. So, the proxies have to be very fast to complete the checkout first.
Some time ago, that would mean using datacenter proxies because they have
very low response times. However, sneaker stores have become much stricter lately,
so there’s a good change these IPs will get you blocked.
The second type includes sites like Yeezy Supply, Adidas, Footsites, and Nike, which use queue-based
systems. This means you enter into a queue and the sneaker website will choose which people
in the queue get the shoes. For sites like these, the first concern isn’t speed (though
speed is still important!) – its proxies that can hide the fact you’re using a bot really well. So,
although residential proxies are slower than datacenter proxies, they are a safer choice.
These IP addresses look like real people, making it very hard for shoe sites to identify your bot.
For more information on the differences between datacenter and residential proxies,
you can watch this video. You’ll find a link in the cards and the description box below.
Both datacenter and residential proxies have disadvantages, so it’s important to know there’s
a third option. It’s called ISP proxies. In theory, these IPs are fast like datacenter proxies
and hard to ban like residential IPs. In practice, sneakerheads use both ISP and residential proxies
for their drops. Don’t be afraid to try things out to see which proxy type works best yourself.
Here at Proxyway, we recently published a proxy market research.
We tested the major residential proxy providers to find out which are the best
based on actual data. If you’re interested – you’ll find the link in the description.
But for now, we’ll show you the key findings relevant for sneaker copping.
So, which provider has the best residential sneaker proxies?
To answer this question, we tested the providers based
on several features that are the most relevant for sneaker copping.
But before we start, a quick disclaimer. You might notice that our tests won’t include
some very popular sneaker proxy sellers. That’s because sneaker proxies are often
sold by proxy resellers that rent proxies from the major providers we will discuss right now.
If you just want to hear our recommended sneaker proxies, you can skip to this timestamp.
Response time. The speed of your connection can either make or break your success.
To measure the performance of proxy IP networks, we used Cloudflare’s IP resolver. While using it
makes the conditions artificial, the response time translates well into other sites.
We can see that Oxylabs and Smartproxy are clear leaders – achieving a response time of
less than 1 second is no small feat. Bright Data displayed great results as well, as did NetNut.
SOAX was an outlier, but not a pleasant one: its residential proxy IPs were by far the slowest,
trailing behind the leaders more than three times.
Note that these were residential and not ISP proxies,
which is why the response times might not look as impressive.
Composition of proxy IP pools. When you buy residential proxies from any provider,
you will get IPs from Wi-Fi, mobile, university, and other connections. The
composition of the proxy pool is very important. A residential IP network should contain ISP,
mobile proxies, or mixed IP addresses. Other types like IPs from cloud hosting companies,
commercial, educational, and governmental organizations are not that good.
From what we can see, most of the eight providers neatly meet
our criteria. The two that do not are NetNut and Storm Proxies. But to be fair,
NetNut has a special pool for sneakers which we didn’t use.
The third provider, SOAX, had a different issue: an unusually large number of commercial IPs.
IP appearance in blacklist databases should also be taken into account. It means the proxy has been
abused and most likely already blocked. To test this, we decided to run some addresses through
an IP database. The scale is small, so we didn't expect much, but the results are pretty telling.
So, which provider has the best sneaker proxies of 2021?
Considering our performance tests, we can recommend the following residential IP providers:
Smartproxy for its low response time speed and great overall performance. In addition to that,
the price-quality ratio is very good compared to other providers.
Bright Data for many of the same things, save for the price.
Oxylabs because of its overall great performance in all areas. Oxylabs' proxies cost similar to
Bright Data’s, so compared to Smartproxy and other providers, it will require more investment.
PacketStream. Its performance wasn’t as good, but still very decent for the price.
NetNut because of how few IPs were flagged in an IP database.
I hope our recommendations will help you choose the best proxy provider for your needs.
You’ll find the links to all the providers we mentioned in the description box below
this video. To be perfectly transparent, yes, those are affiliate links. But now
you have all the data at your disposal to choose the best sneaker proxies on your own.
When choosing proxies, don’t forget that the location of your proxies
might also improve their performance:
Choose the proxies closest to the sneaker site’s server. For example,
if the seller is located in the US like Shopify or Supreme, you’ll need proxies
from the States – ideally NY, Virginia, or Chicago. This will make your connection faster.
See you in the next video and good luck with the upcoming drops!