Flight Club

Flight Club opened in New York in 2005 and effectively invented the sneaker consignment store as a retail format — a shop where the inventory belongs to hundreds of individual sellers and the retailer takes a cut.

Consignment as a model

It solved two problems at once: sellers got a storefront and buyers got somewhere physical to inspect rare pairs. The Los Angeles store on Fairfax became a destination in its own right, and the business later combined with GOAT.

At consumer shows

Consignment retailers bring inventory that cannot be found anywhere else in the room, which makes them anchor tenants at sneaker events regardless of booth size.