Walmart Marketplace is trying on a new source for sneakers ahead of the holidays, teaming up with Stadium Goods — a well-known footwear seller owned by Farfetch.
The partnership will bring Stadium Goods to Walmart’s third-party marketplace from brands such as Nike, Jordan, On, Ugg and more.
“From iconic Air Jordans to legendary Air Force 1s and more, our customers now have more direct access to some of the most coveted sneakers out there — backed by Stadium Goods’ reputation for authenticity and selection,” said Manish Joneja, senior vice president of Walmart Marketplace and Walmart Fulfillment Services, in a blog post.
Walmart is No. 2 in the Top 2000. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of North America’s online retailers by their annual ecommerce sales. It is also No. 8 in the Global Online Marketplaces Database. Stadium Goods is No. 71.
Why Stadium Goods will sell on Walmart Marketplace
Stadium Goods may be the beginning of a new push for Walmart Marketplace. Joneja hinted that more such partnerships are in the pipeline. The online seller follows StockX, which also announced its shoe listings would be available through Walmart Marketplace in September.
“The Walmart Marketplace launch of Stadium Goods is part of our broader commitment to offer customers more of the brands they want — whether they’re collectors, trendsetters, or families like mine,” Joneja said.
Joneja has twin sons and said they have a growing love for premium sneakers.
While Stadium Goods hasn’t announced anything publicly about the partnership yet and didn’t respond to a message from Digital Commerce 360, the company has said it is focusing on digital commerce.
“Our business is primarily through digital channels, so that’s where Stadium Goods is focusing investment to drive growth,” Michael Daniel, the CEO at Stadium Goods, told Footwear News in a January interview.
A strategic shift at Walmart Marketplace
Brendan Cushing-Daniels, associate professor of economics at Gettysburg College, told Digital Commerce 360 that the Stadium Goods partnership is part of a recent strategic turn for Walmart.
“This is part of a continuing trend with Walmart partnering with aftermarket brands,” he assessed. “Since at least 2020, Walmart has done this with Thredup, a secondhand clothing consignment retailer.”
Cushing-Daniels noted that the Walmart partnership allows these firms to reach a much wider audience.
“Many people think that Walmart caters only to households with lower income, but a significant portion of their revenue — even in the grocery sector — comes from households with income above $200,000,” Cushing-Daniels said.
He added that for the majority of the population who are seeing flat household income, quality secondhand goods are a smart way to economize.
“Partnering with Walmart for Stadium Goods could give them much greater exposure to customers willing to pay for high-quality ‘pre-owned’ brands still for sale new at other retailers, as well as those older, rarer gems like original Air Jordans,” he said. “What these consignment firms lose to Walmart in margin they hope to make up for in volume.”
A win-win partnership
David Loranger, associate professor of fashion marketing and merchandising at Sacred Heart University, said teaming up with Stadium Goods makes sense for both businesses.
“This partnership is between one multi-category retailer (Walmart) that has huge scale and a plug-in customer base, and another category-specific retailer (Stadium Goods) that possesses expertise, along with huge depth and breadth of inventory in a specific merchandise category,” Loranger said.
He added that the idea is that Walmart could never — and would never — want to expend the amount of resources and open-to-buy dollars to develop such a specific category as shoes with relation to return on investment and profits.
“They can benefit from a category specialist like Stadium Goods by tapping into their inventory depth and breadth without fronting the [open-to-buy] dollars and incurring distribution, retailing and markdown costs,” Loranger explained.
In turn, he sees Stadium Goods getting access to Walmart’s massive customer base, a good number of whom probably don’t live in a place where they would normally have access to some of the exclusive merchandise on the Stadium Goods site, thus increasing their market reach and volume.
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