If you know anything about sneaker copping, you have heard about sneaker proxies. They are an inseparable part of any successful copping project involving a bot. At first glance, it is simply a proxy type, but there is more to it than meets the eye. Not learning about them fully now might sabotage your sneaker copping in the future. Let's get you prepared.
Defining proxies
Proxies work as middlemen, standing in the middle between the websites you or your bot visits. Normally, you send a data request straight from your device and, once received, the website sends the data back. There is one extra step when using a proxy - you have to connect to an intermediary server.
Such a server connects to the website on your behalf, keeping your IP address invisible and privacy intact. Without a proxy, websites can trace your web activity and know your location just from the numbers in your IP address. Proxies shield your privacy, allowing you to disguise your presence.
People use proxies for many different tasks, and sneaker copping is only one of them. Basically, any job that requires bypassing geo-restrictions or shielding IP addresses benefits from proxies. Sneaker proxies take up only a small but unique part of the potential of proxies.
Sneaker proxies
Sneaker proxies are fine-tuned for the best possible sneaker copping experience. Proxies without this label might be good enough and get you a few kicks. However, sneakerheads discovered that certain features make sneaker copping most successful.
The most important feature is ban-free IP addresses in sneaker sites. It should come as an obvious requirement, but people often spend money on banned IPs and later cannot use proxies on wanted websites.
So what if the proxy is fast and with a good location. First, sneaker proxy must be ban-free, and then comes everything else. Because of this, some providers even take a step further and label their proxies, specifying for what websites they work best. So we have Supreme, Adidas or Footsites proxies.
Another characteristic of sneaker proxies is location targeting, ensuring that you always have IPs supported by needed sneaker sites. Most sneaker sites limit their drops to a few locations, and they use data from IP addresses to estimate this.
If a drop happens in the USA, sneakers will only be visible to customers whose IPs are from there. Good sneaker proxies will have relevant locations but not only that - they will have areas close to website servers, which brings us to the next point.
The performance of a proxy can decide whether you will grab the kicks or not. Fluctuations in speed, or outright downtimes, have to be avoided. Sneaker proxies should account for performance, or they will be useless, no matter how legitimate or accurate in location-targeting they are.
The type of sneaker proxies
In order to fulfill all the requirements, a proxy needs to have unique features, which can be delivered only by the best ones. In some instances, sneaker copping is done with a different option, but usually, sneakerheads have the best proxies in mind - private residential ones.
Private here means that proxies aren’t shared with any other users. You pay for a service, receive the proxy data (usually, IP address and port number) and are the only one who can access it. If the IP is banned, it is your own fault.
To minimize this risk of bans, you will need to have a dozen private IPs on rotation, and the expenses quickly add up. That is why some are using shared proxies - they are significantly cheaper. However, the risk of downtimes and preexisting bans outweigh the small price difference.
Residential is the most legitimate proxy type - the IP addresses are unique, tied to physical devices and verified by internet service providers (ISPs). Every internet user has a residential IP address when the ISP establishes their home connection. If you change your location, the IP address is also changed.
Other types of proxies, such as datacenter, are created virtually in bulk at large data centers. These IP addresses are more easily recognized and flagged by sneaker websites as ordinary users rarely connect with them. Therefore, residential are proxies of choice for most sneakerheads, although they are slower than datacenter ones.
Furthermore, residential proxies tend to have more accuracy and a larger variety of locations. Since they are running on physical devices, the locations can be covered on a city level. Combined with legitimacy, it is enough to make private residential proxies the best sneaker proxies available.
The only concern such sneaker proxies raise is higher costs as alternatives are cheaper. But sneaker copping is a venture that pays off in time, especially if you are successful. And your success rate increases with the right sneaker proxies, so you should consider it as an investment.
Where to get sneaker proxies?
The last thing to learn about sneaker proxies is the variety of providers. Most of the search results online will give you big names with various products, and sneaker proxies will be among the choices. Buying from them is a mistake.
Look for a provider that knows the game and specializes in sneaker proxies. Proxydrop is a great example. Their sneaker proxies are suited for all tasks sneaker copping requires - from focusing on specific sites, such as Nike or Adidas, to general usage avoiding CAPTCHAs and running bots. Use this link to see for yourself.
Big name providers may often use the sneaker proxy label as a marketing gimmick, renaming their other already used and abused proxies. Unlike Proxydrop, they do not know what sneaker copping is and what sneakerheads actually use and need.
Wrapping up
Not everything that bears the label of a sneaker proxy is a great choice. To learn what sneaker proxies are, look for a private residential proxy from a smaller provider like Proxydrop. The rest of the knowledge will come while sneaker copping.