Nike Is Still Doing Its Best to Beat the Bots

When it comes to copping a high-heat pair of sneakers, it can always feel like a bit of an uphill battle. Though brands and retailers have tried to level the playing field with raffles and specialist apps, releases still seem to fall victim to resellers, who often use bots to handle the dirty work.

Last year, Nike released a report showing SNKRS users were ‘disenfranchised’ by the platform's low fairness numbers. While making this fair is no easy task, the Swoosh has since been very vocal about its efforts to ensure releases go to real fans. As part of this process, the brand has shared an overview of how its bot protection process works against SNKRS launches, claiming that it uses a number of tools to identify bots and remove them from the platform. Among these factors is the time spent on the platform, as well as account verification and IP checks, and these checks are made at multiple points during a SNKRS launch.

As part of the discussion, Nike revealed that around 10-50% of all popular launch entries are identified as bots, but that the brand employs a team of engineers that are dedicated to dismantling them. According to Nike, these engineers remove as many as 20 million bot submissions monthly. Going forward, the brand is planning on bringing a new launch screen to the app that details its bot policy, and also working on projects like its Exclusive Access programme that rewards users who genuinely engage with the platform.

In related news, check out our release recap of the Air Jordan 1 "Lost and Found".