The Drop Playbook: How to grow your sneaker store through launches

Chapter 1: What does it mean to launch?

Drops aren't just intended to make a big splash. Effective drops are about generating demand and turning all of that energy into meaningful outcomes for your store and your customers. Ultimately, the way you sell impacts how you build community and a business around fandom.

Stores in the streetwear and sneaker space understand the drop model more than most. With so many limited-edition and collab releases that generate massive amounts of demand, it’s clear that these are not simple, cut-and-dry transactions. Rather, brands lean heavily into storytelling around the products, building hype and creating memorable moments that translate into lasting connections between consumers and the brands they identify with.

When an exclusive collaboration or similarly coveted release gets a fanbase excited, the amount of passion that’s generated simply can’t be captured by standard commerce strategies, especially considering that there simply aren’t enough units produced for every interested consumer to buy one. 

That’s why drops lean into experiences and community building — elements that all fans can be a part of, even if they’re not ultimately successful in making a purchase.

A quick trip through history…

Sneakers were one of the first retail categories to explore what products might mean to consumers beyond their basic functionality, and how to build that into marketing strategies. All the way back in 1934, the Converse All-Star became Chuck Taylor’s All-Stars, named for the basketball player who promoted the shoes and sparked the long-term love affair between basketball and sneakers.

Suddenly, buying a pair of “Chucks” wasn’t just a practical purchase to protect your feet. It was a way to feel closer to an athlete you admired and to express fandom through fashion. And the intrinsic coolness that created has lasted to this day, with All-Stars remaining unquestionably iconic nearly a century later. 

This is the type of creative, long-term thinking that a drop strategy is built around. Launches craft a meaningful story for fans, create opportunities for engagement and community building, and ultimately, aim to turn a drop into an unforgettable impact that can redefine a product to its fans for generations to come. 

Sneaker and streetwear brands continued to deepen fan connections over the decades through various strategies. Celebrity endorsements and creative, narrative-based marketing forged links between products and the cultural zeitgeist, from basketball to skateboarding to music. Limited edition and collaborative releases were introduced to create enthusiasm and urgency around rare styles. Release parties and exclusive drops that got fans lining up outside their neighborhood stores brought fans together and began fostering a sense of community.

Grab our full visual timeline of the evolution of sneakers here!

But things have evolved. The modern challenge is figuring out how this strategy fits into the more sanitized e-commerce landscape, which has traded excitement for convenience. In this guide, we’ll explore how sneaker and streetwear retailers can capture old-school launch magic while harnessing the power of modern tech tools.  

How does a drop strategy differ from a regular ecommerce strategy?

Drop strategy isn’t meant to replace all existing methods of selling — it’s just a broader way of thinking through the entire moment or lifecycle around an in-demand product, not just the sale. 

According to Jean-Michel Lemieux, former CTO of Shopify, “A channel is defined by the way products are sold on it and the way consumers interact with the retailer on it. People generally know what to expect from each channel they purchase from — the process of choosing an item, checking out, engaging with the seller.”

People seek out different channels for different products. You visit a store to choose a product based on feel or being able to try it on. You buy from Amazon when you want the convenience of fast home delivery. And you generally know what to expect from each of those channels when you go into it.

What’s unique about drops?

Every sales channel is better suited to certain types of products than others. And the associated technology needs to prioritize different things. 

And a drop? Launch? Release? Whatever you call it: According to Lemieux, “The fans need to be treated as the most important users of a platform. A lot of platforms prioritize the merchants, making sure the merchant can set up easily, sell through, and that things don’t crash. But at the end of the day, what’s most important is that when passion is high, the fans are having a trusted, fun experience.”

This channel is unique from other sales channels in a few ways:

• Selling a product is not the end-all, be-all. When only a small percentage of fans will get to purchase from each launch, brands need to consider other ways of engaging.
• The fan experience should be the retailer’s biggest priority. Fan enthusiasm is the lifeblood of launches.
• In a space with a massive secondary market, brands need to earn trust and make purchasing fair and fun for fans, which will help the brand garner trust from customers and turn them into lifelong fans. 

Considering these points makes it easy to see how drop strategy must differ from other sales channels. 

The goal isn’t just selling out — it’s about creating connection and maximizing each phase of the product sale cycle and the customer experience.

Why should footwear and apparel stores design a drop strategy?

When people buy sneakers or streetwear from brands they love, it’s not just a purchase. It represents a part of their identity, a connection with a creator’s vision.

‍And if it’s not just a purchase to your customers, it shouldn’t be just a sale for you. Launches are designed to feed off of — and feed into — passion. With the emphasis on storytelling and additional flexibility and control around the engagement experience, launches feel more personalized. They represent an investment into the relationship between brand and fans.

Merchants in the footwear and apparel space are uniquely well-suited to take advantage of a launch’s potential, because fans’ love for these products are already strongly rooted in narratives and relationships.

They delight in the hype that builds around an ultra-limited-edition release. They’re fully bought into the narrative that brands and creators craft around sneakers and fashion. And their connection with the brands they love feels personal.

Let’s dive into these two factors a little more and look at how local merchants can play off these elements of the fandom in unique ways with launches.

How can launches lean into local?

Brands in the space are expertly using celebrity endorsements and storytelling to stoke passions for their products.

The opportunity for local retailers, then, is to tie that narrative back into the community. Brands can shape what the product represents to fans, but neighborhood stores can make it uniquely relevant to local sneakerheads with a launch that ties in in-person or neighborhood-specific elements. And in our current era of globalization, showing love to locals is a true differentiator that feels rare and special when we’re accustomed to everyone in the world having the same level of access.

For an example of what this can look like, we can turn to Undefeated’s 2025 summer drop, which struck a perfect balance of creating special moments for local communities without leaving global fans behind.

The result was a majorly buzzed-about launch which created exclusive and memorable experiences for certain groups of fans while still offering everyone a way to engage. It demonstrates the power of combining ecommerce tech with old-school, in-person connection.

How can launches build relationships?

One of the ways launches support stronger connections is by enabling customized purchasing experiences. Using software like EQL, retailers can set different launch types, determining whether the sale should be open to everyone, upweighting certain audiences, or even offering exclusive access only to a select group (such as influencer partners or followers with VIP status).

Rewarding loyalty and collaboration with exclusive access has long been a strategic growth driver for apparel and footwear brands, but without the proper tools, it can be clunky and time-consuming.

That’s why the iconic brand A Ma Maniére started running launches powered by EQL to make its VIP program truly rewarding — without the manual effort and room for error. 

A Ma Maniére tapped into EQL’s new Shopify App to run an Exclusive Access release for their “For the Love” collection. Rather than manually invoicing VIPs, the team could:

• Upload VIP lists instantly via the app inside their Shopify store
• Automate access and checkout directly through Shopify, eliminating the need for manual invoicing
• See real-time inventory and conversion data

The result? A clean, high-conversion launch that not only rewarded the brand’s most loyal fans, friends, and family but also saved their internal team days of tedious work.

Beyond conversion, the launch also aligned with broader goals of growing and nurturing its loyalty programs, dovetailing with investments in product storytelling and elevated brand experiences.

Chapter 2: What do stores gain from a well-executed drop?

With only a fraction of interested parties able to successfully purchase, stores need to think about how they can still impact and engage fans to make launches pay off in broader ways. 

When you’ve got a product in massive demand, it’s unnecessarily limiting to think only in terms of selling through inventory. Drop strategy encourages sellers to think through the less obvious — but still highly lucrative — ways that a new product release can stoke the flames of passion and serve as a long-term investment in fan fervor.

When done right, a drop strategy turns buyers into lifelong fans. Even more, it creates community. Love of the brand becomes part of fans’ identities and drives rewarding connections. This kind of diehard loyalty is the holy grail for retailers.

Let’s explore a few of the things brands can accomplish with a well-done drop.

Rewarding loyalty

Launches capture attention and get people engaged and excited — especially those who are already followers. And with flexible options, like exclusive access and the ability to curate experiences for specific audience groups, retailers can use hot launches as a highly compelling reward for loyalty and engagement.

Building new audiences

All that attention generated by a launch will reach further than just existing fans. By crafting exciting narratives around a launch event, brands can expand their impact and bring new fans on board.

Creating community

Being a fan isn’t about buying stuff. At its core, it’s about finding your tribe and building connections with other fans. Launches get fans talking and connecting with each other — the kind of interactions that make it more fun and rewarding to be a fan. When people are having a good time, they’ll stick around, so investing in community helps brands ensure their fans’ loyalty. 

And with the ability to run hybrid or even fully in-person launch events, it’s a return to the old-school model of bringing people together for live, memorable occasions that are as much about human connection and celebration of a beloved brand as they are about making a purchase. Real ones might remember the days when friendships were forged in the around-the-block line to snag a new limited edition sneaker drop from the local skate shop. Modern launches bring that back, just with a lot less hassle and chaos.

Understanding demand

As we’ve covered, relatively few fans get a W and manage to purchase from any given product launch. That’s a bummer for them, but also problematic for brands who only have visibility into the people that complete a purchase (and we hate to break it to you, but a LOT of those are typically bots — typically up to 30%). 

However, by using tools built for launches, like EQL, retailers can capture details about everyone who was interested in the launch, not just those who got to buy. That’s a golden opportunity to better understand the audience and what fans like.

Growing local presence

What does this all add up to for a neighborhood sneaker or streetwear merchant? More attention around hot drops, more sales, and ultimately, more inventory from brands for their hottest launches. Leaning into your own creativity and giving a drop a unique local twist allows smaller retailers to ride the tidal wave of a globally hyped drop.

Phases of a launch

Drop strategies prove highly effective for retailers because they’re not just focused on a single moment of purchase.

If you imagine a space shuttle launch, a big, much-anticipated event that happens fast and occurs in a finite amount of time — the launch includes the building of the rocket, the safety procedures, the mission planning, the liftoff and landing, too. Then, the team’s assessment of what worked (and what didn’t). 

In order to fully maximize the impact of a drop, brands can think of them as occurring in three main stages, each of which involves a specific strategic approach.

How retailers can give customers what they want with drops

Brands are increasingly out of touch with what’s important to their followers. How can they be, when so many retailer/customer interactions happen only online? EQL polled hundreds of sneakerheads to learn how they feel about launches and their neighborhood stores. Our respondents came in hot with their thoughts — and what they had to say should play a role in every retailer’s launch strategy.

Here’s our top takeaways.

Customers are dying for more engagement with their local stores

When given the opportunity to share their feedback for their local shops, many of the responses we received spoke to the importance of their communities and how local stores can help them feel tapped into a shared experience. It was the second-most popular response we received: people want more events, more outreach with the community, more bringing people together over shared passions.

Culture is everything, and stores don’t always get it right

People love their stores for the emotional connection they feel to them: 19% of participants said it’s the main reason they are loyal to their local shops, often describing staff as feeling “like family,” and discussing how this vibe is what they love about sneaker culture. But lots of the feedback that was shared with us also focused on how their stores can feel unfriendly or unwelcoming. Fans valued staff that shared their expertise, got to know them personally, and provided great service, while complaints focused on staff acting “too cool” or not interacting enough with customers.

Customers want their loyalty to be recognized and rewarded

A major chunk of our survey responses discussed loyalty. People shared that they were more likely to be loyal to their local stores if they saw some value for that loyalty — like getting hooked up on releases or being able to use rewards points. Respondents also valued getting love from their shops for being local in the form of exclusive in-person releases and online raffles that are location-dependent.

Convenience still matters, too

While the majority of respondents (57%) indicated they would support their local shop over online or big-box alternatives, there are limits to how much they’ll go out of their way, and most fans will ultimately go wherever they need to go to get their hands on the product they crave. Many respondents also lamented that there just aren’t any shops near enough to them, or that their hours aren’t convenient. This speaks to the importance of retailers being able to complement brick-and-mortar shopping experiences with online sales.

Chapter 3: How do brands launch?

Let’s uncover the specifics of what a launch should look like and how brands can plan a successful launch. 

In this section, we’ll look at the planning involved for each stage of the launch: before, during, and after the drop.

Promoting a product launch

The whole point of following a launch model is to maximize fan connection and enthusiasm, extending it far beyond the moment of the drop, and turning what could just be a transaction into so much more. But to take advantage of launch benefits, promotion strategy must be on point.

Here are some techniques employed by retailers who have run highly successful launches in the past:

• Tease it out. Sprinkle little sneak peeks across your marketing communications to start building interest and curiosity before you formally announce the launch.

• Give the launch its own hard launch. Make a splash when you finally share all the details — this could be a piece of content like a short video, a live event (online or in person), or a contest offering early access to a lucky fan or two.
  
  
• Get a conversation started. Incentivize fans to share, comment, and otherwise engage — then make sure to respond and keep the conversation going. This builds buzz organically and increases your reach in the best possible way.
  

Of course, smart strategy is going to look wildly different from one retailer to the next. Above all else, it’s essential to understand your audience and what will resonate with them most. Here are some questions to ask when you’re planning out your launch communications and content.

• What social media channels do most of our customers use? What other types of media do they consume?
• What is the primary purpose of this launch? What do we want existing fans to learn about us? What impression do we want to make on new fans?
• What other brands, celebrities, or influencers do our customers like? How can we involve them in cross-promotion or collaboration?
• What have we learned from past campaigns?

It’s also important to keep in mind that every launch is an experiment to some degree — and the whole point of conducting experiments is to learn. Don’t be afraid to try new things, but make sure that you’re set up to learn from them. What kind of data will you collect when the launch is all done? Will you be able to determine what moved the needle most?

Planning your launch type: online, in-person, or hybrid

Product launches have evolved along with purchasing habits over the years. Once strictly in-store (and often region-specific), launches transitioned to online with the rise of ecommerce. Now, brands can combine the best of convenient modern technology with the excitement of in-person events by offering hybrid launches. 

Here’s an overview of the options, along with the important things to consider for each one.

Online launches

How it works

Typically, the product is sold entirely digitally. Consumers can be notified when the launch will go live and can enter for their chance to be successful until the specified launch window closes. 

Benefits

• The convenience of purchasing online is something we have all become accustomed to. 
• Depending on shipping options, online launches can be open to a global audience, attracting fans from far and wide. 
• Launch channels can easily be built into your existing ecommerce tech stack, like by using EQL’s Shopify app — requiring no additional development work or investment into new infrastructure.

Challenges

• Fans can get fatigued on the online-only experience. In order to continually stoke the fires of fandom, retailers should mix up both the mechanisms and locations of their launches. Keeping it fresh is key. 

In-person launches

How it works

For an in-person launch, the drop will take place at a specific location and can require entrants to physically attend for their chance to purchase. These could happen at your brick-and-mortar store — if there are multiple locations, each store could host a small launch event, or there might just be one or two that take place at flagship locations. 

In-person launches can also be held in conjunction with relevant events that attract a lot of people, like at a convention or sporting event. 

Benefits

• In-person launch events offer lots of opportunities for building excitement and creating a memorable occasion — way more than is possible with a strictly online launch. 
• You might bring in special guests, have live entertainment, or offer refreshments to create a party atmosphere. Getting people together in person naturally builds camaraderie and community. 
• In-person events create the “I was there” feeling that keep people talking for years to come — not likely when being “there” just means sitting in front of a computer screen.

Challenges

• Logistics can quickly become complicated with in-person events. Crowd control is important to consider. Creating a stampede will make your event memorable for all the wrong reasons! But with support for in-person launches built into launch platforms like EQL, it doesn’t have to be hectic.

Hybrid launches

How it works

Hybrid events offer tons of flexibility for brands, so they can look quite different from one to the next. One common way that brands pull these off is to only make a product available to participants of an in-person launch, but then manage the ordering process online and ship product later, simplifying some of the day-of logistics. Or, they can prioritize local entries, but depending on inventory, offer any left to their national audience. 

This can be done using geofencing technology that only opens the launch to people in a specific geographic location at a specific time. You could also display QR codes so that attendees can enter the launch from their phones on the spot.

‍Benefits

• Drive foot traffic to your store while not having to manage crowd control
• Have a moment of in-person connection with fans while enjoying the simplicity of an online launch 

Challenges

• This model can be a little confusing if thorough communication is not used to ensure that everyone is clear on expectations and how things will work.
• It’s important to use the right technology to maintain exclusivity and ensure that only the right people get access to the launch. 

How better+ built on passion with an All Star Weekend launch

Who understands the overlap in passion between basketball and sneakers better than PJ Tucker? The NBA star and legendary sneakerhead now helms the better+ sneaker brand, and he expertly leveraged this connection by running a few of 2025’s hottest launches in conjunction with the NBA All-Star Weekend. The massively successful move serves as a perfect demonstration of the power of an in-person launch tied to a relevant event.

The event featured watch parties, player meet-and-greets, and interactive games that brought the community together over their shared passion.

Even better, the launch leaned into storytelling to celebrate the latest Galaxy Foamposite drop. Paying homage to an iconic moment in sneakerhead history when megafan traded their car for a previous Galaxy Foam drop, better+ wrapped a Corvette in a galaxy print to match the shoes, then held a giveaway contest in which the last person to keep their hand on the car would win it (plus the shoes, too).

The event brought back everything sneaker culture has been lacking in the last few decades — fun, community, unforgettable moments. And with EQL’s technology, the team pulled it off without long lines or logistical headaches.

Chapter 4: Choosing the right tech for a launch

Depending on how you decide to drop, your tech needs will be slightly different. You might need to prioritize certain features, like solutions to keep your website from crashing if you’re expecting a major traffic spike when your product drops, or geofencing technology to maintain exclusivity for a hybrid launch.

But there are a few points that every brand should look for in their launch technology, no matter what.

Keeping things fair

Fairness is extremely important to fans, who want to feel that the brands they love respect them and care about their experience. This is especially crucial for high-heat launches when fans know there’s a good chance they won’t be successful in purchasing the product. 

That’s disappointing no matter how you slice it, but fans will go from bummed to enraged if they notice that the inventory seemed to have gotten wiped out by people who weren’t playing fair.

The more people want your product, the more some of them will go to shady means to acquire it — or profit off of it. That often means using bots programmed to buy up as much inventory as possible before the real humans can possibly get there themselves. This is a tricky problem to solve, but fans expect brands to take some ownership and do the best they can to keep launches fair and enjoyable for everyone. 

To prevent this, employ a tool like EQL that can block bots and bad actors and limit the launch to only those who should have access.

Prioritizing user experience

Another way to show your customers that you care about them is by doing everything in your power to deliver a smooth, hassle-free user experience. 

Some of the poor user experiences that are often associated with high-heat launches include:

• Site crashes due to infrastructure that’s unprepared for a sudden onslaught of traffic
• Queuing, which is done to mitigate traffic and keep sites running but creates a frustrating experience of its own
• Unsynced inventory management that leads to overselling (the worst kind of heartbreak for fans who think they’ve won, only to later receive an order cancellation)
• Complex CAPTCHAs and other clunky methods of verifying that a fan is not a bot

Collecting actionable data

As we’ve covered, one of the main ways brands can benefit from a launch is by gaining useful insights into their fanbase and reactions to their products. However, the extent of these learnings will depend on the launch platform used. Many platforms, unfortunately, only offer visibility into the small percentage of people who successfully purchased the product.

Maximizing post-launch capabilities

The beauty of a drop strategy is that it considers all opportunities within the customer lifecycle. And a crucial, yet often-overlooked, one is immediately after the drop.

Passion is still running high, with successful buyers feeling excited and victorious — and unsuccessful ones eager for a consolation prize. To take advantage of that, your platform should offer post-launch sale capabilities, like a call to action for relevant cross-sells to successful buyers or exclusive discounts/access for those who took an L.

EQL’s post-entry CTA capability unlocks incremental additional revenue on every launch. Capitalize on the enthusiasm your launch built up with targeted sales opportunities to an audience that’s primed and ready to buy. Introducing relevant cross-sells builds perfectly on the enthusiasm of successful purchasers, while a well-timed exclusive offer will appeal to unsuccessful fans who don’t want to end launch day empty-handed.

Seamless integration

The right launch tool won’t require a total rework of your technology and strategy. If you already have a successful Shopify store, you don’t need to start over to begin launching. Just look for a platform like EQL that integrates into your existing tech via a Shopify app. No additional lift on your team, and a familiar brand experience for your customers.

Running launches on Shopify? Get our full checklist of everything your team needs to know from promotion to sell-through and beyond, whether you’re using EQL or not. 

Partnering with EQL on your next launch

When you start thinking of product launches with unique challenges, opportunities, and strategy, it’s easy to see how existing ecommerce solutions fall short. 

EQL was created as a new type of platform, complete with a unique set of capabilities built specifically for launch commerce. Patrick Donelan, Co-Founder and CTO at EQL put it this way: “EQL evolved from a new way of thinking about launches: not as a series of problems to be solved, but as a well of potential to be tapped.”

Through its innovative approach to drop strategy, EQL offers the technology to deliver a smooth, end-to-end experience, and opens doors for broader and more lasting revenue potential.

Ready to execute on a drop strategy for your business? Let’s chat.