Supreme maintains that its site may only be used for personal orders, and not for resale, and that if it suspects an online order is for resale, it retains the right to cancel the order. END footwear has created a microsite called Launches meant to put customers on a queue and ensuring them more time to complete their orders. Sites have employed various tactics to try to curb bot-usage (though once bot-creators have figured out the вЂњreal-personвЂќ tests on these sites, they attempt to adjust their programs). Protecting against unwanted bots is highly technical and requires fast-changing technologies. The Better Nike Bot for instance, advertises unlimited accounts, вЂњauto-captcha resolveвЂќ and вЂњadvanced countdown support.вЂќ While cheaper bots are often just Chrome extensions, more expensive bots have been adapted to seem human through a variety of tests created by sites to fight bots. He says that bots can adopt different levels of deception. According to Imperva, in 2016 almost 52% of web traffic came from bots. Bots used for automated shopping are considered вЂњimpersonatorвЂќ bots, which constitute almost a quarter of the bots used on the internet. Other, more nefarious bots can be used to guess passwords to break into the back-end of brandsвЂ™ sites.Д«ecause sites actively try to deter bots, programmers must вЂњtry to make the bot seem like a human, and by human, I mean seem like a browser,вЂќ says Igal Zeifman, an evangelist with the web security company Imperva. While some bots simply quicken the checkout process, others can be programmed to guess at URLs to find new products that have not been officially announced. Some buyers create their own, while others will pay up to $2,000 for high-power bots.ДЄndrew Sellars of the BU/MIT Cyberlaw and Technology Law Clinic says that bots can be used for a variety of tasks. A few bots have become standard, including 'Another Nike Bot,' the 'RSneakerFL,' 'A Better Nike Bot 'and 'Nike Shoe Box,' among others, that typically cost between $70 and $300. If you donвЂ™t manage to snag a pair right away, you run the risk of paying a much higher resale-price. Running into bots is inevitable if you hope to purchase a limited-release shoe online from a store like Nike. Once bot owners have completed their orders, they promptly resell the new shoes at a much higher price.

These controversial computer programs quickly perform constant iterations of tasks, from adding limited-release items to a cart to entering credit card information, thus bypassing slower, human customers and frustrating shoe sellers hoping to sell their products to real consumers.

But what once resulted in days-long lines at local malls has today emerged as a global, internet competition for these coveted shoes, with thousands sitting at their computers and phones, often equipped with several bots. athletic footwear industry generated $17.5 billion, according to the NDP Group, and its resale industry is estimated to be worth $1 billion. But he couldn't have done it without the help of bots.

Srijan Sharma, a sophomore in high school from New Jersey, estimates that heвЂ™s made $50,000 reselling sneakers. new fervor in a hobby that began with the release of the first Nike Air Jordan shoes back in the 1980s. People who track the shoe culture say the Internet and explosion of social networking has created.

Multiple bots for sneaker releases