Here's how a 'shoetuber' with over 500,000 subscribers earns thousands of dollars a month making YouTube videos about how to resell sneakers
- Michael Mitchell makes thousands of dollars a month on YouTube from posting videos about sneakers.
- Mitchell is part of a growing movement of "shoetubers," or YouTube influencers who make money from videos about reselling sneakers.
- He's had brand partnerships with companies like Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Foot Locker, and Champs and also makes money through Google's AdSense program.
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Reselling sneakers can be profitable on its own. But there's a whole wave of sneakerheads who have figured out how to use YouTube to make even more.
Michael Mitchell is one of these so-called "shoetubers." The 25-year-old says he earns between $1,200 and $10,000 a month from his videos, which largely focus on sneaker culture and the art of reselling. He is one of many influencers capitalizing on a platform that rewards content creators monetarily for amassing views on their videos.
Mitchell didn't plan to be a shoetuber. He used to resell sneakers through his business, called A Sneaker Life, which involved him buying sneakers early, reviewing them for his audience on Instagram, and reselling them. At the same time, Mitchell was reselling sneakers to be able to afford the collection of shoes that he was amassing himself.
In his first year of college at Johnson & Wales University in 2014, Mitchell says he pulled in around $150,000 in sales from reselling shoes.
"The whole YouTube aspect of it was just on the side," said Mitchell, who initially used the platform to promote his business. "And then YouTube just kind of took off."
As Mitchell grew his business, the rise in the sneaker resale market, which a Cowen & Co. analysis estimated could be worth $6 billion by 2025, became fodder for its growth. Eventually the sneakerhead's YouTube career skyrocketed when he made a video in 2015 that outlined how to afford being a sneakerhead. The video went viral and brought in a wave of new subscribers, fans, and customers.
Mitchell currently has 513,000 subscribers on his "A Sneaker Life" channel and 154,000 subscribers on his personal YouTube channel about his life.
Here's how Mitchell went from a sneaker reseller to a shoetuber making thousands of dollars a month.