Not long after sneaker Twitter discovered yesterday that StockX removed “Verified Authentic” on its listings, the marketplace addressed its verification process on Twitter.
“You may have noticed we updated the name of our verification process, but the work our team does every day to meet our elevated standard of excellence has not changed,” the company said on Twitter, sharing a link to the verification landing page on its website.
In a lengthy statement, StockX said, “While product authenticity remains core to our analysis, our verification process is a better reflection of our broader value proposition that we provide customers by reviewing all products sold on StockX.”
The statement continued, “We look at a range of indicators before sending a product onto a buyer and there are a number of reasons why a product may fail to meet our elevated standards of excellence, including incorrect size, missing accessories, a damaged box, a manufacturer defect, if it shows signs of previous wear, and of course, if the item is fake.”
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StockX also said it stands by its verification process that is featured on every product page, and in the first nine months of 2022 it has “protected customers” by rejecting more than 240,000 products worth more than $70 million.
In an image StockX shared on Twitter, the company provided a breakdown of the reasons products were rejected from June 1, 2021 to May 31, 2022. Manufacturing defects was the reason with the highest percentage at 24% followed by damaged box (20%), used product (16%) and fake product (14%).
The statement from StockX did not go over well with some Twitter users.
“If you can’t guarantee the product is authentic and you’ll only promise to do the best you can then that’s a problem,” wrote user @kenedjr.
User @RFDthree added, “This is word salad nonsense. You didn’t say anything. You’ve made your practice less transparent and instantly more suspect.”
However, not all replies to the statement were critical of StockX.
“I’ll stick with you guys. I’ve gotten at least 10 pairs of shoes and they all checked out never had issues,” wrote user @MerengueMando14.
The news comes amid tough times at StockX. At the start of the month, the company confirmed it would undergo another round of layoffs due to current economic headwinds. In a statement sent to FN on Nov. 2, the company said it made “adjustments” to its corporate teams “to align with our current organizational priorities.” The statement continued, “While macroeconomic trends require businesses to be nimble, our vision of being the trusted global platform for consuming and trading current culture is as certain as ever. We thank the many team members who have contributed to this effort.”
