A teen who made $200,000 selling sneakers last year reveals how he uses TikTok to win over Gen Z sneakerheads

purintheplug/TikTok

Moungvang uses TikTok to win over a key demographic of sneakerheads and promote his business.

• 17-year-old Purin Moungvang makes thousands reselling sneakers.
• The Beaverton, Oregon-based teen said he made around $200,000 in sales as a high school junior in 2019.
• Moungvang said he has been able to reach a large base of Gen Z buyers through TikTok, the social media platform that has become popular among teens. Here's how he does it.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Sneakerheads come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes, the most successful resellers aren't even legal adults.

17-year-old Purin Moungvang is one of many teens who has figured out how to make it big in the sneaker resale market, which a Cowen & Co. analysis recently estimated could be worth $6 billion globally by 2025. He said he made around $200,000 in sales in his first year of reselling as a high school junior in 2019, mostly through marketplaces like StockX and GOAT and via his Instagram account @Purintheplug.

"I wanted to get an early head start," Moungvang said of his move to break into the business. The teen said he started reselling shoes when he was around 16 years old, when he noticed how large the profit margin could be on certain pairs.

For the Beaverton, Oregon, native, Nike and Adidas were a part of daily life growing up. Both athletic-wear companies have headquarters in the area, which Moungvang said made his love for sneakers essentially a birthright.

Moungvang said he isn't the only high schooler who has been struck with sneaker fever.

"Everyone I see is just on their phone checking marketplaces like StockX, GOAT," he said of his high school peers.

Moungvang said it seems like almost everyone in his social circle is a sneakerhead. And as a teen reseller, a lot of Moungvang's clients happen to be young members of Gen Z who regularly use social media apps like TikTok.

If used correctly, TikTok can be supremely beneficial to a sneaker reseller looking to resonate with a younger audience.

Here's how Moungvang uses TikTok to win over that key demographic of sneakerheads and promote his business: