If you’re here, then you’re one of these two. You either are new to sneaker botting and trying to climb the knowledge ladder, or you’re a returning botter. Either way, odds are you’re already familiar with botting basics and ready to invest in sneakers. But just in case, here’s a little introduction to sneaker botting! And since you’re here, you’re probably asking the right questions which we’re gonna answer now. The questions on today’s list are: What are sneaker proxies? Why do you need them? What do they do? Well, let’s find out together!
A Sneaker Bot Recap First!
The world is evolving, and so is everything in it, especially the sneaker industry. If you wanna get that pair of kicks, you don’t have to wait at the door of a physical store anymore. Instead, you’ll be lining up at the website of that store! But unfortunately, these stores won’t let you take more than one pair. And lately, Nike DTC is making the scope even narrower, but that’s a different story that you can read here.
That’s when you’ll need a sneaker bot to solve the problem! A sneaker bot will go into the store and try to get you as many pairs as it can. And it does all that while looking as human as possible. Now, there are many types of sneaker bots, but an all-in-one bot could definitely come in handy if you wanna try your luck on different types of sites.
Anyway, a sneaker bot runs on a physical device, and each device has an IP address. The IP address is something like a human’s fingerprint, each device has a unique one. So, when the store security detects that this IP is going for the same kicks multiple times, it’ll stop it! In other words, a sneaker bot alone can’t get you multiple pairs since you’re operating it from the same device. Good thing there’s a way to avoid that, and that way is using sneaker proxies.
So… What Are Sneaker Proxies?
You may have heard of proxies before in many settings. Gaming, mining, web crawling, web scraping, and shopping are all areas you could use proxies in. The last area we mentioned is what interests us the most. Proxies, generally speaking, are intermediary servers that change your IP address before sending a connection request. That way, it looks like the requests are coming from different places while you’re in the comfort of your home. In other words, they just mask your actual IP address.
But what privacy would I need when buying sneakers online?
In the case of sneaker copping, proxies aren’t really for privacy, they’re opportunity providers instead. Sneakers are getting harder to cop with all the security measures, and many retailers have the 1 pair per buyer rule. And let’s not forget about all of the bot protection sneaker retailers and apps are using. Therefore, buying exclusive valuable sneakers online is only possible using sneaker proxies.
What Do They Do?
Sneaker proxies are like different costumes that will allow you to go and get a pair of kicks multiple times. They hide your actual IP address and each proxy can put you in a different place on the world map! But just like everything in this world, sneaker proxies cost money. So when you’re thinking about how much a bot costs, you gotta budget for the little (but vital) additions too!
Anyway, when you use proxies, the sneaker sites you’re buying from won’t know you’re getting in multiple times. In other words, you go in the first time as John Doe, the second as Johnny Doeitz, etc… and the rest is history. You could be in the US and your fake IP address makes you look like you’re in the EU! This especially comes in handy when you’re trying to cop regional sneaker releases. But you’d need reshipping services in that case.
So if you’re still wondering what are sneaker proxies, you can know more if you read on! But as a base rule, it’s generally not advisable to run a bot without sneaker proxies. Imagine somebody running up to 100 tasks on one website from one IP address. It would look sus even to the worst security system! A general rule of thumb is to go for 1 task per proxy. But you can stretch your luck to 2 tasks per proxy.
If you’re wondering how many tasks you should run with your bot, we gotchu. Finally, in addition to all that, you’ll need VCCs to make everything look legit! Can’t be in the US and EU and use the same credit card number at the same time, right? You can learn more about VCCs right here. But don’t worry, things aren’t as complicated as they sound.
What Are Sneaker Proxies – Different Types
Now that you know what are sneaker proxies, you need to know the difference between each category! There are several types of sneaker proxies that you can choose from. Some can work better than others on certain websites. And we actually dedicated a whole guide for that, but still, an overview never hurt anybody.
Residential Proxies
As the name suggests, residential proxies are IP addresses that come from a residential area. A real place that exists somewhere in the world. That way, hypothetically speaking, a website can’t tell whether you’re using a bot or not! The downside of residential proxies is that they’re usually slower than other options. You can measure the speed of a proxy by its ping in milliseconds. When the ping is high, the proxy is slow. They’re a great alternative for sites with a high risk of bans though, and if you’re not in a rush.
ISP Proxies
Before ISPs, we had DC (or DataCenter) proxies. Just like residentials, DCs had their pros and cons that you can check out here. However, ISPs came in and swooped DCs out! You see, ISP proxies offer you the best of both worlds! They give you the authentication you need through internet service providers and have all the qualities we loved about DCs. So they’re relatively secure with the added perk of being really fast. ISP proxies work well on most sites, even Shopify (which NSB works amazingly well on, just saying).
Some Tips to Pick the Best Sneaker Proxies
You now have an idea about what sneaker proxies are and why you need them. However, there are also some tips that you should keep in mind when considering proxies. First, if it’s free, then it’s too good to be true. Most free proxies aren’t safe, aka you shouldn’t trust their intent. You can read more about this here.
Second, you should consider the location of your proxies. For example, if you’re botting Nike SNKRS US, it makes zero sense to use EU proxies. Of course, the opposite also applies, because buying from Nike EU makes no sense if you’re living abroad (where Nike SNKRS also exists). And finally, speed always matters, especially on really hype drops. But at this point, you already got that figured out!
Now That You Know What Are Sneaker Proxies…
You should look for good sneaker proxies to use with the bot you’re running on drop day. Just make sure you know where you’re going before paying your savings on the whole setup. Here’s a cooking guide to help you out if you’re new to the game! And if you already copped your first pair of kicks, make sure you know where to flip them. After all, sneaker reselling is one of the best side hustles you can get into to make money online! Godspeed.
