The bots won’t let Travis Scott — or his fans — be great.
Revolt TV is reporting that the rapper-mogul’s Fragment Design Air Jordan 1 release was tainted by what they’re calling “sneaker bots.”
Here’s what happened: some of Scott’s most devoted fans used a bot program called Linear AIO to secure tens of thousands of raffle tickets for their chance to land the coveted sneakers. One entrant nailed more than 25,000 entries, and another landed more than 30,000 entries, thanks to the bot. But while that helped fans who had the program to secure nearly 100 pairs of sneakers at a time, it left other disappointed fans out in the cold.
One fan tweeted at Travis Scott, “This kinda stuff is disheartening. You try and try as a fan to show love and support for the artist and no matter how hard you try you lose to a bot who enters thousands of times. I mean… I’m gonna keep trying… but odds are against us fans.”
More than 200 pairs of shoes, which retailed for $265 a pair, were secured with more than 50,000 raffle tickets obtained by bots, according to SneakerFreaker.com.
As sneakerheads know, this means that if you want a pair of Fragment Design Air Jordan 1’s by Travis Scott, you’re going to come out of pocket for a lot more than $265 a pair. A quick peek at eBay reveals that the shoes are going for as high as $4,000 “or best offer” (if that makes anyone feel better). Many of the shoes are even coming with an authenticity guarantee in the form of digital certificates from CactusJack.com. Perhaps it’s advisable to only bid on those pairs, given the messiness that can sometimes happen on the auction sites.
If $4,000 is out of your price range (and, really, who isn’t feeling the crunch of the pandemic these days?), it may be advisable to wait for the next round of Travis Scott sneakers, which will drop on Aug. 13.
