The Edit Ldn’s Moses Rashid Talks Yeezy, Preloved and Coming to America
LONDON — The Edit Ldn, the fast-growing sneaker resale platform founded by Moses Rashid, has big plans for the U.S. market next year.
Having recently secured an additional $3.5 million in funding from its investor, the platform is looking to turn its focus to the American market. It aims to set up a local team by next fall and open a retail location in Las Vegas by winter.
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At the time of the interview, Rashid was traveling around the U.S. to meet with major sports clubs, hoping he could score a few of them as partners by next spring. Last month the platform named New York Giants captain Xavier McKinney as its first brand ambassador.
“We’ve got a huge ambition to take over the U.S. from a sneaker resale platform point of view. The appointment of McKinney was our first step into the market. It seems to have worked and now I’m on this trip meeting pro athletes like MMA fighters, basketballers and the big clubs,” Rashid told WWD.
The international market represents around 50 percent of its business and the U.S. alone is responsible for generating 20 percent of its revenue.
Having launched a store in Harrods last year, The Edit Ldn entered Qatar this month with a pop-up in Galeries Lafayette Doha. Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh and the Netherlands are also on the agenda for expansion next year.
Since launching in 2020, The Edit Ldn has seen sales increase by 525 percent year-over-year. Its core female customers, aged between 18 and 34, tend to shop more frequently and spend under $300 a transaction, while its core male customers tend to spend $500 and above on products, Rashid revealed.
He pointed to Crocs’ collaboration with Salehe Bembury, Telfa x Ugg and the Adidas Samba and Gazelle sneaker models as some of the most in-demand new items on the site at the moment.
The Edit Ldn recently expanded into preloved. Rashid said it’s a natural step as many of his sneaker suppliers are shopaholics themselves.
“The preloved section works slightly differently. You can take your own image. It will then be approved by our team. Then of course once there is a sale, you will send the preloved product to The Edit Ldn headquarters to be authenticated and put in a nice box, and sent to the customer from there,” Rashid explained.
The platform involved professional sellers in the luxury space such as Sellier Knightsbridge, as well as sourced from its loyal customers who are celebrities or professional soccer players.
The vertical was launched with a broad selection of cult pieces from brands like Chrome Hearts, Louis Vuitton, Off-White, Balenciaga, Dior and Enfants Riches Déprimés, in addition to the usual premium-priced but more accessible highly desired sneakers styles, such as various Yeezy models.
The Yeezy shoes saw their average price increase by 20 percent in the first few days after Adidas officially cut ties with Ye, previously known as Kanye West, Rashid noted.
“I think people worried that stock was going to deplete. Where we are now is that we’ve got a bit of a plateau going on, and naturally following the plateau we see a slight dip,” he added.
According to Rashid, the platform has carved out a niche in the competitive resale space by offering a luxury experience that other price-point-driven players, such as StockX, can’t deliver.
For example, The Edit Ldn launched a same-day delivery service within the U.K. It is aiming to expand that offering to five additional countries this time next year.
“We are aiming to build the most premium sneaker streetwear and collectibles platform on a global platform. Think Farfetch but with the positioning of Louis Vuitton. Yes, consciously it’s a little bit more expensive, but for that, you’ll get it quicker than the rest,” explained Rashid.
One method The Edit Ldn uses to shorten the waiting window between placing an order and getting it delivered is that it only connects buyers and sellers locally.
The other strategy it uses to guarantee its supply is that it prioritizes resellers who have 50 or 100 units to sell, instead of one or two pairs.
“We incentivize them to put the product through our platform rather than others. A reason why they might do that is that they achieve between 10 to 20 percent higher selling through our platform than many of our competitors.
“We also assign them an account manager, who proactively tries to sell their products for them. For example, you might have five pairs of Nike x Travis Scott, and we’ll take those and push them to our personal shopping team, which manages [soccer] players from Manchester United, Chelsea, Newcastle, and so on,” Rashid said, adding that the platform also provides sales data to sellers, which eventually helps them generate better profit.
The Edit Ldn is looking to expand its local networks in new markets to sustain its growth. Rashid revealed that there are around 5,000 resellers on the platform, and last month alone, another 300 resellers joined.
The platform is also investing heavily in building its culture and community to retain customers. For example, it feted the preloved launch last week with a car boot sale on London’s Brick Lane with food, drinks, and live music, inviting customers to come to feel and touch the preloved pieces.
“Our job is really to continue to bring them the hottest, coolest and most cultural pieces, and give them that money-can’t-buy experience,” Rashid said.
“Over the next 12 months, part of my role really is putting us into the places that for a three-year-old business we really shouldn’t be. And hopefully, our customers and followers will be really excited to come along and be part of the journey with us,” he added.