TOP 10 SNEAKERS OF 2019

2019 is already being hailed as one of the most hyped sneaker years of the last decade. To close out the 2010's Nike and Adidas went head to head. They both released a slew of classics and new styles that pushed the boundaries of wearable and stare-able. Puma wasn't far behind; they brought us a new sporty look for 2019.

We're going to list the top 10 sneakers of 2019 listing the most anticipated and sought after sneakers of 2019.

1) The Nike Sacai Waffle Racer was one of the most sought after sneakers of 2019 by fashionistas and sneaker-heads. The four colorways dropped at 2 different times through out the year. Once in the spring and again in the fall. They were accompanied by a mid Blazer that was equally as loved.

2) With the rise of Travis Scott in the sneaker space he brought along with him a grail that will never be forgotten. The Air Jordan 1 Hi Cactus Jack was probably the most sought after sneaker of 2019. This shoe alone is the most expensive Cactus Jack sneaker on the resell markets currently and will probably continue to be so.


3) Enough could not be said of the Yeezy Boost 350. This shoe made another list on this blog and is considered one of the biggest influences on the sneaker industry in the last decade and is probably the most iconic sneaker of the second half of the 2010's. The colorway that changed everything for the shoe was when it was released in a static black colorway. Even people not into sneakers wanted this shoe.


4) This shoe is going to get a lot of shit talked about it but it deserves to be on this list because it makes sense. Drake and the Jordan team may not be on the best of terms but they still managed to make one of the most meaningful sneakers of 2019. The Jordan 4 Raptors Drake OVO was so important because the shoe was perfectly timed for the NBA Championship in which the Raptors won. This is what Jordan sneakers are supposed to be about.


5) Nike just seems to be a talent agency because they've scouted some of the best talent in design and style. One of their best acquisitions was the deconstructed design elements Virgil Abloh brought to the brand. Virgil was able to take one of the most desired OG Jordan 1's and make it a holy grail to sneaker investors and collectors alike. That sneaker in question is of the course the Jordan 1 Off--White and specifically in the Chicago colorway.


6)Virgil was also able to give us his take on the classic Nike Air Force 1. He gave us the most classical UNC blue and a striking silver Nike swoosh tagged with his signature hang tag and zip-tie. This shoe was so limited not even celebrities could get their hands on retail pairs. Nearly everyone with a pair has paid for them on the after market where prices have reached a staggering $2000+.


7) An unexpected entry in 2019 was the Puma RS-X. This shoe showed us what is next to come out of that camp and where their taking looks. This shoe represents a new bold design that Puma hasn't ever really shown before this last year. With endorsements from Meek Mill and other worthy celebrities Puma is shaping up to be a top contender as we move into the next era and decade.

8) Jerry Lorenzo, hailing from the same camp as Virgil, was able to capture the same magic at Nike as his counter part Virgil. Taking a completely different approach, Jerry designed a one of a kind sneaker that was reminiscent of the Nike Air MAG. Jerry was able to translate that fun futuristic shoe into a real world storm trooper appealing street wear collectible. Although this shoe came in 5 other colors we decided to choose the Oatmeal iteration as our top 2019 Jerry Lorenzo sneaker.


9) This year was a good year for Jordan 1s. We saw over 15 different styles released this year but none was more desired than the Satin Black Toes from August of this year. Featuring a beautiful red satin upper sole and an awesome black leather finish on the toe of the shoe; this is one of the best Chicago themed Jordan 1s to release in 2019.
 

10) Already a fan favorite the Yeezy Boost 350 has settled in the hearts of consumers. Whether you've seen people wearing them and wonder if they're comfy or if you own a pair and want to get your hands on the color you actually want; everyone is eyeing Yeezy's right now and specifically 350's. When the static black 350's dropped everyone quickly realized they weren't getting a pair. When they realized they had a chance to get a black pair of yeezys with a little color in them, people went nuts. This is probably one of the most desired Yeezy's that no one even realizes happened. Probably because there have been like 35 pairs of 350's in total and no one knows the order of their release dates. The Yeezy Boost 350 Yecheil is that shoe. With the classic 350 design but with an all new multi-color prime-knit, this shoe has re-sparked the 350 flame. 

New World Of Shopping

This new 21st century is littered with opportunities to buy. And that was a literal statement. The internet has become a wasteland of merchants and they're selling everything from cheap replica fashion jewelry to one of a kind custom fenders for your Ferrari. Aside from the dark web, most of the normal internet is filled with scammers too. These scams range from drop-shipping companies to  data collection marketing scams. All of which are technically legal, but still scam-like.

The internet has enabled companies to become scammers by using advanced economic theories on unsophisticated consumers. In finance you'd lose any of your series license for this under the penalty of being unethical. It's actually against FINRA and SIPC regulations to sell sophisticated investments to unsophisticated investors; or in other words, people who don't understand what you're selling them or how it works or who can't afford it. As far as the marketing goes, companies like StockX tells their customers that they're using a sort of stock exchange that matches orders for you. Then you try to sell something you get this funny response that says "Buyers have the option to Bid on your sneakers or buy them immediately" followed by "StockX is not an auction so sneakers are not automatically sold to the highest bidder; they're basically telling you they're front running your order.

Side Note: Front running is what big stock trading brokerage firms got in trouble for just 10 years ago. The firms discovered they could out trade people sitting at home by using super computers to watch their own customers' every move so they could jump in front of their stock purchases buying the shares at a lower price than their customers; then they'd sell the shares to their customers who were already attempting to buy because the firm knew the customers were coming to buy. All before you even knew it was happening it was already done; they called it High Frequency Trading (HFT).

In the past industries like Aviation have dealt with the internet of things by creating reservation systems that absolutely f*** their customers by using aggressive pricing and sales strategies called first degree, second and third degree price discrimination as well as misleading marketing and products that come with customer failure guarantees. Most people are used to being scammed in these ways and the scams seem so well thought out and hard to figure out that people simply accept them. For fear of not understanding e-commerce enough to stand-up for themselves the average consumer sees these scam-like pricing scenarios but they buy anyway because usually, these types of scams are reserved for rigged markets; Or markets that have participants who receive preferential treatment and prices compared to the public.

The aviation world there are airline consolidators, who act as wholesalers of airline tickets. They could be referred to as a broker and they usually sell tickets directly to the public alongside the airline. They don't have to buy the tickets because the seats are contracted out at a set rate. All the consolidator has to do is sell the tickets at a price profitable to their business. Now at this point you're asking yourself, "WTF does this have to do with the new world of shopping"?

The answer can be found at your local shopping mall. Nothing in the malls sells out. Hyped sneakers rarely make appearances at malls anymore and when they do they quantity is so low it doesn't even draw a major crowd (Nothing the mall cops can't handle). Nothing in the mall is rare and nothing in the mall is limited. You can assume that whatever is on sale right now will be on super sale tomorrow and then mega sale the day after that. We've all grown accustomed to the American sale cycles. With the emergence of e-commerce a new level of rarity is upon us.

Consumers no longer have the opportunity to decide if they really want those Off-White (If you don't know what Off-White is please keep reading this article is for you) bed-sheets. You have to buy them because you know you'll never get a chance to buy them off the shelf ever again. Yes, you heard that correctly, you will never be able to buy those bed sheets off the shelf ever again. They will be burned before they're ever sold again. The funny thing about these bed sheets is that they were sold at Ikea stores on 1 day for only 5 hours; not online and not in the Ikea catalog. It took 5 hours because store employees were moderating the lines and purchasing process. Without their hard work that time would be chopped down to 1 hour max. These sales dynamics so far from the internet are whats driving people to the internet. No one wants to stand in an Ikea line at 6:00AM in the freezing cold. But if you want the items and only want to pay their MSRP then you have to.

While this is going on, millions of people are buying cheap bed sheets from Walmart.com or Amazon most likely. Most people are addicted to cheap materials at this point (Now I understand what The Greats were talking about). Because of this now we have to fight for the quality. Manufacturers are now holding their best goods for the Internet's major wars; the drop date.

At any given time during the work while everyone else is concerned about putting food on their tables, the biggest brands and smallest all decide to release to the public some of their most sought after designs. From Nike to Supreme, all brands seem to have adopted an approach that requires their customers to have free time during the day. If you want a an Adidas sweatshirt that no one has and possibly never have seen. then you might have to buy it at 2:00PM on a Tuesday using PayPal only from a website you've never heard of. And if you make it past the product page to the checkout window you'd be considered one of the lucky ones. The sad truth is that more often than not the item will sell out before you even 

Typically customers are put in digital waiting lines called payment queues. This is a unique feature that allows e-commerce stores to put  customers in virtual queues that essentially turn their internet browser into a submissive to the website. During this time you can't refresh your browser or even open too many other windows leading to the same page; why? Because the merchant might ban you.

So now let's imagine that we live in a world where the majority of the merchandise on the racks at the box stores are 10 or even 20 years old; and let's also imagine that the same brands don't send those same stores any of their up-to-date cataloged merchandise. And lastly let's imagine you live in world where you have less than 30 seconds to buy what you want. Sadly enough, that's the world you live in. A world where brands only want to sell us trash in-store and force us to play their games online just to get a decent product with some design elements included. Now the only question I have  is, Why?

And For The Market Of Illegal Goods & Services

And for the market of illegal goods and services one must recognize the major differences that make these two economies separate. For it isn't the fact that the goods and services of the black exchange market are illegal that make it different; that is merely a price exaggerating factor.

The true characteristic which gives the black market it's power to control markets trends is the markets emphasis on products rather than consumers. For in a black market products are controlled by cartel-monopolies(conglomerates of cartels controlling every aspect of an industry)  making competition and more importantly OPTION non existent essentially. That strips away the power for the consumer to choose between different styles of the same good.

So the consumer is no longer distracted by brand choices but more so the utility of the good they are obtaining. ---the sad true fact is that the black market is the last true international trade organization in the world in which an average person, not normally dealing in large quantities to supply a region or space, can trade and exchange a range of goods and services, illegal or legal, to obtain a good or service, illegal or legal, they desire, with cash, being one of many options as a form of payment, or in exchange for other goods and/or services.

So instead of a consumer purchasing demand market you have a consumer dependent upon inventory consistency market, where price is determined by a reversed supply and demand scenario. The consistency of a suppliers inventory dictates the demand of the market and its prices.

Now on another note, we should examine the case of unregulated legal markets with actors doing illegal activities. 

The New Age

It's been some time but finally we have some drip for you to pick up. 

The last time you were speaking to you people we were serving up the latest in music, fashion, art, and finance. It's time we take it to another level. Culture Trap will be getting a makeover soon but don't worry, we won't change. New lashes, new wig, but the same Culture Trap.

In addition to the topics we've always covered we will now have pages dedicated to current events, shopping and beauty.That means more content, better content and more engagement. At any time we could be posting a Culture Trap exclusive discount to your favorite make-up brand;and at the same time, on another page, we may be providing sneaker-heads with important shoe drop information. 

Either way, stay locked in to Culture Trap to catch all the vibes.

Culture Trap's objective is to bring all the latest topics of interest to the culture oriented consumer. Please don't forget to sign-up for updates to receive emails and notifications about new posts.

 

Us vs. Markus & Willy

Recently a group of researchers from The University of Tulsa and Israel’s Tel Aviv University wrote a report titled “Price Manipulation in the Bitcoin Ecosystem.” This 26-page report takes a look the Bitcoin/USD(BTCUSD) exchange rate from between February and November 2013. Their research is centered on identifying and analyzing the impact of suspicious trading activity (STA) on the Mt. Gox Bitcoin currency exchange during those 9 months mentioned. If you aren’t familiar with Mt. Gox just know that the Japanese exchange closed in February 2014 but previously handled over 70% of global bitcoin transactions before they began liquidation proceedings due to an April 2014 bankruptcy filing because they lost 600,000 bitcoins. I think now might be the time to let everyone know that Mt. Gox was started as a trading exchange for cards from the game Magic. The name Mt. Gox is actually an acronym for Magic The Game Online eXchange and was only converted to bitcoin trading because the domain name was already purchased and the market for Magic cards is good where it’s at.

The information uncovered in this report isn’t the most unique but it sheds light on the dark crypto-currency world that lurks behind the bright, chart displaying exchange software company’s use to attract their customers. It’s also organized and presented in a way that clearly underscores the how dangerous the crypto-currency markets can be to those who are not aware of the markets they’re entering. Besides the fact that all crypto-exchanges are OTC, most customers are retail traders with no experience trading any other type of asset. In other words, they don’t even know how an electronic exchange should work; the rules, parameters and expectations of users and the system.  These exchanges are working like equity dark pools for an asset that has no intrinsic purpose for customers that have no background or training in the fields.

These researchers went through the public blockchain data along with leaked transaction history from the Mt. Gox data dump that happened in early 2014 and discovered that just two traders were responsible for the rise in bitcoins price during the 9 month period studied. During this time the price of Bitcoin rose from roughly $105 to $1000 and 2 traders were responsible for nearly 40% of the total market volume. The two traders are referred to as Markus and Willy. They aren’t actual people but “bots.” For those that aren’t familiar with the word “bot”, know that they are also known as Internet bots and are software applications that run automated tasks over the internet.

Markus was actually a group of users who traded bitcoins on the Mt. Gox exchange that never paid transaction fees and paid seemingly random prices for bitcoins. This was all from a single userID and Markus made duplicate transactions in which the amount paid was changed from a random price to one that was consistent with the day’s price range. Markus was active for 225 days which he only traded 33 days. Markus acquired a total of 335,898 bitcoins during his active trading time. It appears that the bitcoins acquired were not purchased. Markus became inactive September 27, 2013.

Willy was a different case entirely because this group of trader bots only bought bitcoins on the Mt. Gox exchange. During the 65 days between the first day becoming active and the last day available for research, Willy trades were made on 50 of those days. While Markus used a single userID to manage trading activity Willy used 49 separate accounts. Only 7 hours and 25 minutes after Markus became inactive, Willy became an active trader on Mt. Gox. From each of the 49 accounts, buy orders were placed for $2.5million worth of bitcoins; once the order was filled the account became inactive. This cycle continued until all 49 accounts were inactive.

Now that we have the backstory let’s take a look at some evidence we’ll refer to as red flags. Upon further research into the user IDs and account IDs it was clear to see that there was some foul play at work. The manipulated duplicate records that are associated with Markus are a red flag. The sequential use of accounts and proximity to Markus a red flag for Willy. And for both bots, their accounts’ IDs don’t match account IDs for the users of Mt. Gox during that time period. Normal accounts for this time period had IDs that capped around 650000 where the bots had IDs in the range of 658152-832432. Additionally, trading API reports for Mt. Gox suggests that during offline periods only one user’s transactions were being processed at the time. While everyone else was unable to access accounts and money Willy was able to trade uninhibited for 90 minutes buying 10-19 bitcoins every 6-20 minutes. Willy was able to acquire 268,132 bitcoin for a little less than $112 million.

Together Markus and Willy “acquired” a total of 604,030 bitcoins which is very close to the 650,000 bitcoins that Mt. Gox claims they lost. These two users were able to obtain user IDs that were so different it wasn’t hard to pick them out. They were allowed access to markets when no other users were able to do any transactions. Let’s not forget the nominal accounting system that most digital financial networks use; Companies may not actually have in cash what they put in their systems. This all smells fishy. It isn’t a reach to say that this sounds like an inside job. Who else would have the authority to give user’s unique IDs, or access to markets when access is being denied to others. It appears that there was a mindful attempt to manipulate data and change Markus’s balance. And how do we explain Willy and the 49 accounts sequentially buying $2.5million worth of bitcoins and never selling? This sounds like someone was trying to create money through making “fake” trades that exploited Mt Gox’s systems to let account get credited without making the offsetting entry to any other account. Something only an internal employee could have access to and do. This was a very informative post and I hope it leads you to make good investment decisions.

These traders’ had impacts on other exchanges as well. It is shown that not only was Mt. Gox manipulated by Willy and Markus but Bitstamp, Bitfinex and BTC-e were all exchanges that saw the price of BTCUSD affected by the traders. Similar to when the STA was occurring Mt. Gox saw an increase in BTCUSD prices these prices rolled over in to the other exchanges creating differences in opening prices for the pair on different exchanges. With the right tools someone would be able to sell in to those markets taking advantage of the markets even more by creating arbitrage situations. At this point I think I should have named this article The Finesse or Racketchain.

For the last year I have been working with individuals and businesses managing their crypto-currency portfolios. I help them mitigate risk and create revenue from risks. They look to me for advice and clarity on the markets they trade and the assets they own. Not one of my clients would have been able to save themselves from something like this. Not only were the trusted market hosts taking advantage of their guests they were manipulating the market as a whole which sheds a light on the work that’s still left to do in the currency markets to improve the infrastructure.