1. Sneaker Bar Detroit Content & Traffic Analysis
Industry Overview
The collectible-sneaker industry is at its peak and has been growing for a few years now. What
started as just insiders buying and selling sneakers amongst themselves has now risen to become
a 70 million plus industrial company and is projected to reach almost 120 million by 2026
(More). With the growth of the industry, collecting sneakers has become a culture respected by
all ages. They refer to themselves as ‘sneaker heads’ and as the name implies, all they think
about is how to improve their collections.
An industry that used to rely solely on eBay for buying and selling of sneakers had its first in
person and online store called Fight Club open in 2005. “It is a cultural institution for the sneaker
community.” (Matt Cohen). Eventually similar stores sprouted up like StockX which is worth
over a billion dollars and has about 20,000 transactions each day. They are a leading authority
that keeps track of their sales rankings which buyers, sellers and even brands can all access for
free. Some stores exist on social media like Corgi Shoe on Instagram, owned by an ex-inmate
who did not have where to keep his shoes when he got out and decided to start selling them. It
was the first to start selling on Instagram and now has a total of 42.4K followers.
Events are also held frequently and a popular one is Sneaker Con founded by Yu-Ming Wu in
2009. Rashone Bryant also known as Afrikan Caesar is a sneaker head who wrote about his
experience in 2014 at a sneaker convention in Michigan. He described it as fun and a venue for
people of diverse origins i.e. age, race, and so on. He said, “With every convention the crowd
grows larger”, and this goes to show that everyone is welcome to participate in the collectible
sneaker culture.
2. The sneaker industry has big influences like Travis Scott and Kanye West who owns Yeezy.
With their kind of music which serves as a culture on its own, people are further drawn to follow
up with their lives and eventually become sneaker heads as well. These people contribute
immensely to the growth of the industry.
19-year-old sneaker head Joe West who’s been reselling since he was 15 said StockX had its
biggest profit months in history in 2020, regardless of the pandemic. He believes that most of the
money came from people using stimulus and unemployment checks to purchase sneakers. One
can only imagine how far sneaker heads would go to get the sneakers they want if they are
willing to use their safety money to buy shoes.
Some people collect sneakers for fashion purposes. They are interested in buying the trendiest
sneakers out there and celebrities have a big influence on this also. As seen on GQ, several shoe
brands and designs are preceded by the name(s) of top-notch musicians or athletes. An
interesting one is Kid Cudi’s Adidas sneakers called the Vadawam 326 which was referred to as
a nostalgic shoe from the future.
However, as the sale and resale of collectible sneakers rises, the sale of regular athletic shoes
used for basic sports activities like jogging etc. is declining. The athletic shoe industry had a bad
business year in 2020, dropping as low as negatives in their monthly sales. The shift in
preference for collectible sneakers is growing and will define the future shoe industry as a whole.
Company Information
Sneaker Bar Detroit is an online site that specializes in posting release dates for different sneaker
brands. SBD is just one out of several other sites in the collectible sneaker industry. It is owned
and was created by Mario Briguglio who is currently serves as the Editor in Chief. “My passion
3. for sneakers started at age 6 and now I’ve turned my passion into a profession”, he said. The site
doesn’t sell sneakers but directs visitors to e-commerce sites like eBay and StockX to make
purchases.
The face of the website, Afrikan Caesar told us during an interview that Alin Tiniuc oversees
web analytics and statistics while he sticks to developing content and hosting their podcasts.
The site is quite easy to navigate as names of different sneaker brands are at the very top of each
page so you can click on whichever category you prefer. And for those who prefer to specify
what they want and are in a hurry to find it, there’s an efficient search box to use. Based on their
content which includes mainly photos and text, sites like Goat and Fight Club look much better.
And compared to our competing site Kicks on Fire, SBD is just a site for release date
information and articles on permit me to use, ‘sneakerheadry’ while KOF is a site where you can
purchase sneakers. However, one must sign up to access this feature.
KOF’s content is better arranged and organized than SBD’s. But the good thing about SBD’s
content is that they focus on providing honest information which can be seen in their privacy
policy where they make it clear that the security of information gotten from users on their site is
their utmost priority but no site is ultimately a 100% secure. It also mentions that the site uses
cookies to track returning users.
Brand Trust & Authority
Contributors:
SBD is an authority on collectible sneakers because their podcast host Afrikan Caesar has
interviewed the famously known sneakerhead DJ Clark Kent who has worked with rap musicians
4. like Jay-Z, on his show. He has also interviewed, Karim Biggs and Michael Smith who happen
to be big names in the sneaker industry.
Social Presence:
Both SBD and KOF have large followings on social media but KOF’s drastically outweighs that
of SBD. Imagine my surprise when I saw that KOF’s twitter page with over 900K (‘K’ stands for
thousand) followers is followed by Obama. They have 3m followers on Instagram, about 1.3m
on Facebook and 94.3k subscribers on YouTube. While SBD has 47k followers on Twitter, 330k
on Instagram and 100,217k on Facebook.
News Coverage:
So, in my opinion both sites are authorities on the topic but KOF is more of an authority than
SBD considering their numbers of following and notable sources that have featured them. Khan
Furqan is the owner of KOF, and he featured in the, ‘30 Under 30’ article on Forbes. Aside from
that, SBD has also been featured in news articles by the likes of Breitbart and The Daily Wire.
Competing Site
KOF founded by Furqan Khan, is an online sneaker store than sells shoes and keeps users up to
date on sneaker release dates. It is like SBD in the sense that they are both collectible sneaker
sites, the only difference is that KOF is an e-commerce site since it does not only give updates on
sneaker release dates but sells them too. It is likely that they collect credit card information.
KOF also has a larger and more diverse team than SBD and has an in-person store called Sportie
LA in California. People have gone as far as making remarks like if Sportie LA does not have a
5. special sneaker brand that you’re looking for then it probably doesn’t exist and yes, news sources
have written about KOF.
Quality Content Assessment
Content Overview:
The content used the most on this site are images and text. Majority of the images are sneakers,
but some have faces of notable people in the sneaker industry like Kanye West (obviously
because of his Yeezy role). Most of the text on this site is dedicated to sneaker release dates.
About 15-25 sneaker release posts tend to be added everyday depending on how many sneakers
are announced by brands. This adds up to about 105-175 in a week and 420-700 in a month. I
have noticed that there is a lot of content everywhere, but some pages do not get updated as often
as others. Such pages include sneaker pages like Asics, Vans, and Reebok. This is probably
because they are not in as much demand as Nike, Adidas, Yeezy and so on or they just do not
release new stuff as much.
Credible Content / Unique Content:
Unique means that no other content like theirs can be found anywhere else. The opposite of
unique content is duplicate content and we already established in class that SBD has duplicate
content. After googling text from SBD, here is some more proof that the site lacks unique
content.
6. TRAFFIC ANALYSIS
• Visit Analysis
SneakerBarDetroit.com KicksonFire.com
Visits (most recent month) 2.7M 1.2M
Unique Visitors (most recent month) 1.4M 699.3K
Visits Per Unique Visitor 1.9 1.7
o Definitions:
The numbers stated above are from the month of January. SBD had more visits
and unique visitors than KOF in the past month leading with 2.2M (‘M’ means
million) visits and 1.2M unique visitors. Visits are the number of times that the
site has been visited. Unique visitors are the number of devices that visit the site.
They are tracked using cookies so that sites can know when they have returning
visitors. A single unique visitor can visit more than once. Visits per unique visitor
is the number of visits divided by the unique visitors and gives you the number of
times people come to a website.
o Comparison:
Its surprising to see SBD with more visits than KOF because of their large
following and authority over the topic. SBD is leading in everything including
7. unique visitors as seen in the chart. I want to believe the reason why SBD has
more traffic is because they are honest and tend to put things out exactly the way
they are which was further explained during our interview with Afrikan Caesar.
Also, part of the traffic could be from the podcast because according to Afrikan
Caesar, they get up to 70,000 downloads in a month. KOF does not have a
podcast on their site but has several videos on YouTube so maybe most of their
traffic ends up on their social media and not on the site.
o Returning Visitors:
SBD has more returning visitors than KOF. According to Afrikan Caesar, the
most important thing is having unique content because there are many other sites
that post sneaker release dates. But what makes them different is what attracts
returning visitors to the site like the podcast and their authenticity. KOF on the
other hand may not have as much traffic because their site is not distinct from
others. The growth in returning visitors can be seen in green in the diagram below
and reduction can be seen in red.
8. • Engagement Analysis:
SneakerBarDetroit.com KicksonFire.com Web Averages
Bounce Rate % 66.48% 66.61% 40.50%
Pages Per Visit 2 2.72 4.6
Avg. Visit Duration 7:15 4:29 3.1 min
o Bounce Rate:
Bounce rate is when a user visits just a single page before leaving. The web average is
40.5% meaning that both SBD and KOF have a significantly high percentage of users
visiting only one page with SBD ranking at 66.48% and KOF at 66.61%.
The goal of a site is to keep a user engaged for as long as possible and when this does
not happen the bounce rate is bound to be high. Possible reasons why SBD’s bounce
rate is not could be because it is not an e-commerce site. Meaning it does not sell
sneakers, it only posts release dates. People who visit the site could be looking to
purchase sneakers and either click on their links to eBay or StockX or just leave the
site entirely.
As you can see, unlike KOF, SBD has no link to a shop on their site or even an app.
o Pages Per Visit:
Also known as pages per session, this is the number of pages that a user visits before
leaving a site. SBD’s pages per visit is 2, KOF’s is 2.72 and the web average is 4.6.
Both sites are about halfway away from the web average.
9. The number for SBD is bad because it isn’t close to the web average. SBD gives
detailed release dates with brand names, prices, and colors but they do not sell
collectible sneakers, instead they link to the online stores for the brands. Their detailed
release dates and podcast could contribute to increased visits while lack of on-site
sales could contribute to decreased visits.
o Average Visit Duration:
Also known as average session duration, this means the average amount of time users
spend on the site. SBD’s average visit duration is 7 minutes and 15 seconds, KOF’s is
4 minutes and 29 seconds and the web average is 3minutes and 10 seconds. SBD’s
average visit duration is good because it tops both the web average and KOF.
However according to the chart, SBD has decreased in the past month by -5.02%. This
could be because they have repeated links instead of keeping information all in the
same place. This can be seen in the example below of sneaker release dates written in
the middle of Yeezy and Jordan release dates when they could all just appear under
sneaker release dates. Or simply leave them in the brand information. The text for
navigating the site is scattered.
10. • Value Content & Engagement Improvement Recommendations:
The screenshot above is from another sneaker site called Goat. The shirt circled in red is
a cool change is design I saw on their site. It was very different and interesting to look at
because I wanted to know what it would change to each time. SBD can include
something like this on their site just to make it more interesting. Videos also help to keep
users engaged and SBD only uses images, text, and audio on their site.
This is another example of interesting content from Fight Club, another collectible
sneaker site. They have pictures other than sneakers that are accompanied by the story
11. behind their store. The thing about sneakerheads is that most of them do it for the culture
and being able to read a background story helps to set them in the sneaker mood and feel
comfortable using and revisiting a site because they feel welcome there. SBD should
inculcate something like this instead of posting only pictures of sneakers, they should
give a back story to promote the culture and include other pictures.
POPULARITY ANALYSIS
Total Backlinks No. of Referring
Domains
Average No. of Backlinks
per Domain
SneakerBarDetroit.com 3.6M 8.7K 413.793
KicksonFire.com 18.4M 10.5K 1752.38
Definitions:
KOF has more backlinks and referring domains than SBD with 18.4M (‘M’ means
million) and 10.5K (‘K’ means thousand) respectively. They both have more backlinks
and referring domains than the average number per domains. Backlinks are links to a site
from other websites. A referring domain is also known as a web address or website is
12. simply a referring website. This is where backlinks are found and used to send traffic to
our site. It is important to calculate the average number of backlinks per domain to have
an idea of how many backlinks a referring website carries for our site and how much
traffic it sends.
o Analysis of Link Quantity:
SBD’s referring domains and backlinks have increased by 785 and 65.1K respectively in
the past month. KOF on the other hand has increased by 649 in referring domains and
887K in backlinks. This could be because of numerous links to their own site within the
site, that I noticed while going through their website. The reason there is a difference is
because SBD’s referring domains are more than that of KOF and KOF’s backlinks are
more than that of SBD.
o Analysis of Quality:
Top 20 referring domains in terms of quality are:
1. www.stockx.com
2. www.gq.com
3. www.breitbart.com
4. www.thedailywire.com
5. www.pinterest.com
6. www.kicksonfire.com
7. www.yahoo.com
8. www.theringer.com
9. en.wikipedia.org
10. www.hothbricks.com
13. 11. www.singlegrain.com
12. www.snaidero-usa.com
13. www.bestcouponcodes.com
14. www.deadspin.com
15. www.sneakercrush.com
16. www.engadget.com
17. www.esquire.com
18. www.theundefeated.com
19. www.hotnewwhiphop.com
20. www.highsnobiety.com
News sources include The Daily Wire and Breitbart. These are both well known
sources. Other notable sources include GQ, Yahoo, Pinterest, StockX and even Kicks
on Fire the competing site.
To sum it all up, both sites have unique content and both sites have duplicate content as well. But
the site that needs the most improvement is SBD. Although they have wonderful stuff, their site
still needs a lot of fixing in order to trigger returning visitors and enhance their authority on the
topic. Below are screenshots of the referring domains.
14. Link to publicly viewable document: https://www.slideshare.net/UhomanAprilMoltok/sneaker-
bar-detroit-content
15. WORKS CITED
Briguglio, Mario. “Sneaker News/Release Info.” Sneaker Bar Detroit,
https://sneakerbardetroit.com/, Accessed 9 Feb. 2021.
Khan, Furqan, et al. “Air Jordan 1 High ’85 Neutral Grey.” Kicks on Fire,
https://www.kicksonfire.com/air-jordan-1-high-85-neutral-grey/, Accessed 9 Feb. 2021.
Dean, Tres. “Kid Cudi’s New Adidas Sneaker Feels Like a Throwback from the Future.” GQ,
10 Dec. 2021, https://www.gq.com/story/kid-cudi-adidas-vadawam-326.
Flores, Gerald. “The Rise of the Reseller.” Complex, 20 Nov. 2019,
https://www.complex.com/sneakers/2019/11/rise-of-the-sneaker-reseller-in-the-2010s.
Dunne, Brendan. “StockX Just Had Its Biggest Months Ever.” Complex, 13 Jul. 2020,
https://www.complex.com/sneakers/2020/07/stockx-biggest-months-ever-may-june-
2020.
Powell, Matt. “Sneakernomics: First Half 2020 Athletic Footwear and Activewear Sales
Results.” npd, 31 Jul. 2020,
https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/blog/2020/sneakernomics-first-half-2020-
athletic-footwear-and-activewear-sales-results/#.XyRaw2NrB1k.twitter
Patel, Neil, et al. “Backlinks: SneakerBarDetroit.com.” Semrush,
https://www.semrush.com/analytics/backlinks/overview/?q=sneakerbardetroit.com&searc
hType=domain&compareWith=kicksonfire.com%3Adomain, Accessed 9 Feb. 2021.
Patel, Neil, et al. “Traffic Analytics: SneakerBarDetroit.com.” Semrush,
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kicksonfire.com:domain&searchType=domain, Accessed 9 Feb. 2021.
Lu, Eddy, et al. “Buy and Sell Authentic Sneakers.” Goat, https://www.goat.com/,
Accessed 9 Feb. 2021.
Durden, Tyler. “Air Jordan 5 Retro ‘Authentic’.” Fight Club, https://www.flightclub.com/,
Accessed 9 Feb. 2021.
Gerasimenko, Dmitry. “Backlink Profile for SneakerBarDetroit.com.” Ahref,
https://ahrefs.com/backlink-checker, Accessed 9 Feb. 2021.
More, Ajay. “Sneaker Market 2020: Industry Growth Competitive Analysis with Top Countries
Data, Definition, Market Size, Future Prospects and Forecast to 2026.” Market Watch, 2
Dec. 2020, https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/sneaker-market-2020-industry-
growth-competitive-analysis-with-top-countries-data-definition-market-size-future-
prospects-and-forecast-to-2026-2020-12-
02#:~:text=The%20global%20Sneaker%20market%20size,7.2%25%20during%202021
%2D2026.
