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The Air Jordans he’d bought were fake, so he launched Goat, a reseller platform sneaker fans could trust, with his start-up pal
- Goat does all its authentication in-house, using AI to supplement teams investigating potential fakes. In 2019, the company caught US$72 million in counterfeits
- Its founders, two friends from Southern California, found success with Goat after years of failed ventures spanning everything from iPhone apps to gourmet tea
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Freshly unboxed, the Air Jordan Retro 5 Grapes were marvellously throwback – and totally fake.
The reissued classics just didn’t look, smell or feel like the real thing. Entrepreneur Daishin Sugano, in Los Angeles in the United States, couldn’t believe how badly he’d been ripped off by an eBay sneaker reseller.
The discovery was particularly irksome for Sugano. When he was 10, he had earned as a reward for a great school report card a pair of Air Jordan 5 Grapes, the shoe worn by basketball superstar Michael Jordan when he played for the Chicago Bulls in the NBA. That pair launched a thousand sneakerhead dreams, and prompted his order many years later was for what was supposed to be a 2013 official re-release version.
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Sugano shared his disappointment at the botched purchase with fellow University of California, Berkeley graduate and pal Eddy Lu, his partner in several underwhelming business ventures since the two decided to ditch their corporate jobs in 2007 to become entrepreneurs.
Their latest start-up had fizzled, so they cooked up another idea: a reseller platform that would win the trust of sneakerheads everywhere by authenticating everything.
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No counterfeits. No purchases that mysteriously never arrive.
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