What Next TBD: Why Are Bots Buying Sneakers?

Slate News

Slate Podcasts

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2021

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The bots aren’t just buying cool sneakers. They’re buying concert tickets. Tickets to basketball games and Broadway shows. At the beginning of the pandemic, they were buying hand sanitizer and face masks. And later, they were booking vaccine reservation spots. Why are bots taking over certain markets? And is there anything we can do to slow them down? Guests: Derreck Johnson, designer at Slate Eric Budish, economics professor at the University of Chicago Host: Seth Stevenson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Derek, what is your relationship with sneakers?
0:07.7	It's a tumultuous one.
0:10.7	Derek Johnson is a designer at Slate, and he's very into sneakers.
0:15.6	Whenever some cool new sneakers being released, Derek knows all about it.
0:19.7	Right now he's got his eye on an upcoming drop of some limited edition Nike Air Max
0:23.8	1s, made in collaboration with an Amsterdam Streetwear boutique.
0:28.0	He's hoping to buy them online before they sell out.
0:30.6	They did a pair of orange ones that sold out very quickly last week, and they're coming
0:34.3	out with a pair of blue ones, so I want the blue ones.
0:36.4	Actually, I like better than orange ones, so see what happens.
0:39.2	What do you think your odds are of actually being able to buy them?
0:42.2	Zero.
0:43.2	Zero?
0:44.2	Zero.
0:47.2	The problem with buying limited edition sneakers online these days is that the competition
0:51.6	is incredibly fierce, maybe unnaturally fierce.
0:56.4	If you're going to buy online, you have to be fast, like literally like fast with your
1:02.2	fingers and typing things, because there are people out there that have found ways around
1:06.9	that.
1:08.2	What are these ways around it?
1:12.8	Bots, they're called bots.
1:16.4	Bots are a special clever kind of software.
	...

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