My Analysis of a Web Site Paper.

1. Ben Wester
Sneaker Bar Detroit Content & Traffic Analysis
Industry Overview
Collections. They come in many shapes and forms. Some people collect baseball cards, some
collect coins, and some even collect action figures. Today, we are here to talk about a new type
of collecting that I just learned about. Collectible sneakers. Before this project, I had no idea
that sneakers were even something people collected, but now, thanks to some research, I can
see how deep the rabbit hole goes, and I don’t believe I’ve even scratched the surface. The
aspect of sneaker collecting that is the most appealing to the community is not only having rare
shoes as a part of your collection, but also the opportunity of reselling shoes. This is really
where things get interesting. Many sites are used for sneaker reselling, but one of the most
popular is StockX. StockX is very similar to the actual stock exchange in many ways, such as
buying and selling items, but in this case, it is buying and reselling shoes. And this has been very
successful for StockX, according to The New York Times the sales were, “topping $100 million a
month.” (Griffith) Just based on that figure alone you can see how successful this reselling
industry is, and why sneakerheads are so obsessed with collecting the shoes, because that’s
quite a lot of money to be made just from reselling shoes. With the introduction of Covid-19 to
the worlds economies, you might think that the business of reselling might have declined due
to everyone staying at home and not able to sell, but that has not been the case at all.
According to Jaime Kingston, a commercial lead for Klarna, an online shopping site, there was,
“One week in April we saw a 105 percent increase in the sneaker category.” (Moin) This is really

2. important information to see because it shows that just because there is a pandemic happening
in the world, it isn’t stopping sneakerheads from doing what they love. It shows that the way
that many sneakerheads are buying their shoes are not from the actual manufacturers, but
instead from these reselling sites. And some trends that come with sneaker buying is also
surprising as well, according to the article collaboration sneakers are also bought in high
amounts and even more recently, shoes made with sustainable materials are on the rise as
well. One of the reasons that the sneaker reselling industry is doing so well during this
pandemic is because some of the money coming, “into the market comes partly from
unemployment checks and the government issued stimulus…,” according to Joe West, who sells
shoes through StockX. (Dunne) One thing that I find to be interesting about the sneaker
industry is just how diverse it is, we can see just how diverse this community is by reading what
Caesar had to say about the 2014 Michigan Sneaker Xchange. He had said it, “truly was a
melting pot…,” which I find to be so wonderful when talking about a community of fans of
something, it just shows that this can reach so many people in so many different ways, as he
says, “all for the love of the gym shoe.” (Bryant) When it comes to the shoes themselves, it
appears that the shoes that seem to gather the most attention are the collaboration shoes. For
example, the number two best sneaker of 2020 so far was a Nike sneaker crossed with Ben and
Jerry, the ice cream company. With collabs such as this, it just shows that anything crossing
with sneakers could become a successful shoe. When it comes to these shoes, there is a
distinction between athletic shoes and collectible sneakers. While sneakers seemed to be
prospering during the pandemic, athletic shoes did about to opposite. According to Npd.com,
athletic shoe sales went down about 40-50% in March and April. (Powell)

3. Company Information
SneakerBarDetroit.com is a website that gathers up and posts news and information that would
be relevant for a sneakerhead, such as shoe announcements and shoe release dates. The
content that makes up SBD is up to date postings about shoe drops, reviews about shoes and
the podcast that is hosted by Afrikan Caesar. SBD is made up of three employees, Mario
Briguglio who is the founder and editor in chief, then there is Alin Tiniuc, who is a managing
editor and works on the advertising and tech side for the website and finally we have Rashone
Bryant, also known as, Afrikan Caesar, who hosts the podcast and edits, and who we had the
unique opportunity to speak to. During our conversation with Caesar, he talked at length about
SBD and the sneaker industry, and I feel what he said provides a lot of good information for this
paper and analysis. He talked about how he feels the most important thing that SBD needs to
do and does is getting information out to the public as soon as they receive it. He also talked
about what he believes are needed to have a successful website for the sneakerhead
community. These are that consistency and content, and in his words, they are key. You need to
continually provide good content so that way your audience gains trust for you and continues
to come back because they know you provide good information.
Brand Trust & Authority
When it comes to running a website that needs to provide something to a community, the trust
of the site and the brand is critical in maintaining a positive reputation amongst the community
you are providing information to. In order to view SBD as an expert in its field, we must look at
who writes for the site and determine if they can be considered experts. First, Mario, who

4. founded the site and is the editor in chief. I would consider him to be an expert because he has
been obsessed with shoes since he was six, in his own words. He also writes almost all the
articles about new releases and I feel that being involved in the sneaker world for that long and
running a site and writing articles about sneakers would make him some what of an expert.
Another person that works with SBD that I would consider to be an expert would be Caesar. I
would say that Caesar is an
expert because of our talk with
him and what he had to say. As
someone who works with the
site, he is liaison for the site and
consults with brands. And while I
don’t necessarily think that these
next few things make Caesar an
expert, I feel that they are
important to bring up, but it helps
flesh out his impact on the site
and community even more.
Caesar feels as though one of the things he tries to do when he consults with a brand is to try
and help them get back to some former glory, because he loves these shoes and he wants them
to be the best that they can possibly be. These brands would trust what he has to say because
he can represent the sneakerhead community because he is a relatable figure that is constantly
interacting with people in the community in a way that a brand may not be able to. When you

5. look at the social media metrics for SBD and for Sneaker News, it is very surprising what you can
see. As you see from the screenshots on the last page, Sneaker News has far more of a
following on Twitter, Instagram and on Youtube. Sneaker News has almost 10 million followers
on Instagram, while SBD hasn’t even cracked a million. On Twitter, has almost 900 thousand
followers and SBD doesn’t even have 50 thousand. And finally, on Youtube, Sneaker News has
fair number of subscribers above 200 thousand, and SBD is sitting with not even 6 thousand.
This data just shows that SBD isn’t as well known of a site as Sneaker News. Of the six trusted
news sources that have written articles about the top sneakerhead websites, SBD was only
mentioned on three of them, which I feel is pretty good, just based on how small our site is and
what the social media numbers are. This just shows that just because the follower numbers
aren’t massive, they are still putting out content good enough to be noticed by big news sites.
Competing Site
One of the competing sites to SBD is SneakerNews.com. They are another information site for
sneaker heads. From my time looking at both SBD and Sneaker News, it seems that the content
they both provide is very similar. They both provide information to sneaker heads, most
notably, they publish press releases from different sneaker brands about what sneakers are
being announced and what they are releasing soon. From what I can see, it appears that SBD is
more up to date with its announcements. But with that said, it does appear that Sneaker News
does more than just publish the press release. The author of the article provides their own little
description of the shoe and for example, with the Lego x Adidas shoe, a description of the
collaboration. While both sites seemvery similar, they both have their own pros and cons.

6. Quality Content Assessment
Content Overview
When looking at the content on SBD, there is a lot to unpack and it can seem daunting if you
don’t know what to look for. The main content on SBD are posts about new sneaker releases,
with pictures and descriptions. These are articles that are just short enough to where you
understand the gist of the shoe, but not so much information to where you become bored with
what you’re reading. Another element of content that SBD provides is a place to watch Caesars
podcast, The Sneaker Box. When I looked at how many sneaker posts were released in a day on
SBD, I could see that 19 had been uploaded on the 14th, while only 8 had been uploaded on the
13th. As I look through the posts even more, it looks as though weekdays are when most
sneaker posts are released, while over the weekend, not very many are released. The images
used on the site are of very high quality and seemto come right from the manufacturers
themselves. Having this images be of high quality is absolutely paramount when it comes to this
industry because if someone can’t even tell what the shoe is going to look like, there is no way
of knowing if it will be a successful shoe or not. Before this paper, I didn’t know much about the
collectible sneaker industry other than the fact that it existed, but now as I look through all the
posts throughout the days and weeks, it really started to dawn on me just how many shoes
there are. I had never really put much thought into it, it was just interesting to see just how
many shoes are announced per day. It just goes to show that this is an industry that isn’t going
away anytime soon, and that this information will always be important to those who need to
find it.

7. Credible Content/ Unique Content
Unique content is something that can be a little confusing when you begin to start looking at
web production, but hopefully with an explanation, it can help you get more of a grasp on what
exactly it means within this context. In the world of web production, the word unique means
that there is no other content
like it anywhere. In the video
from class, we can see that
many sites are running the
same story about the Spider
Web Nikes, but I still wanted
to test it out on my own. When I searched for the Lego x Adidas shoes, you can see from this
screenshot that other sites and even a Youtube video have used what I presume to be the exact
same press release about the shoe. This is just one example of SBD not having unique content,
which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does add fuel to the question, why should people visit
SBD over other sneaker news sites. This is an important question because if SBD is providing the
exact same content as every other site, there is absolutely no reason for people to go to our
site. It is also important to point
out that one of the other sites that
is running the article has the name
of Mario Briguglio attached to it,
which if you remember, is the
name of the founder of Sneaker

8. Bar Detroit. This means that Mario would be licensing out SBD articles to be used on another
site, in this case, the site muckrack.com. When we look at an article from Sneaker News, that
you can see in the second screenshot on the previous page, we can see that they are doing the
exact same thing that SBD is doing, running the press release. Just from this, we can see that
this is something that not just SBD does, but other, even more successful sites are doing as well.
Traffic Analysis
 Visit Analysis
o Definitions
As you can see from the data, SneakerNews.com is the winner all fronts. They
have about 3 million more average monthly visits throughout that 3-month
range than SBD. They also have about a million more average unique visitors
throughout that same range than SBD. And finally, they have .33 more visits per
unique visitor than SBD throughout that 3-month range. A visit is defined as a
session, or someone being on the site. A unique visitor is just a user or someone
who is visiting the site. Finally, visits per unique visitor is defined as however
many sessions a user has.
o Comparison
When we compare the trends of the two websites throughout that 3-month
range we pulled the data from, we come across something very interesting.
SneakerBarDetroit.com SneakerNews.com
3-Month Average Monthly Visits 2.689 M 5.680 M
3-Month Average Unique Visitors 1.346 M 2.438 M
Visits Per Unique Visitor 2 2.33

9. While Sneaker News
may have started at
about 6 million monthly
visits in May, they have
dropped to less than 5
million by the time June had started, but were then back above 6 million when
July rolled around, as you can see from this screenshot above. When we look at
how SBD faired over this 3-month period, we can see that they had a steady
increase in monthly visitors. I believe that the reason SBD had an incline while
Sneaker News had a decline and then incline is that during the time when there
were not as many new announcements, people stopped visiting Sneaker News,
and since Caesar was still producing his podcast, that was keeping SBD fans
around and visiting the site.
o Returning Visitors
When we look at the data for visits per unique visitors, we can see that the two
numbers are very close to each other. I believe that this is because people are
visiting the sites for the same reasons, they are looking for news from those
sites. I do think that the reason SBD keeps having returning visitors is because
SBD is consistently creating good content that people want to return for, such as
The Sneaker Box podcast. Having returning visitors is important for a business
because it provides you with a steady base, but hopefully, with that base, they

10. enjoy the brand and promote through their own word of mouth which in turn,
hopefully gets you new visitors who one day may become returning visitors.
 Engagement Analysis
o Bounce Rate
Bounce Rate is when only one page is visited before the site is exited. When we
look at the data, we can see that SBD has a bounce rate about 12 percent higher
than SneakerNews.com and the high end of the web average. When it comes to
the bounce rate, the lower the number, the better that it is. I think that the
bounce rate is so high is because people are visiting the site, maybe reading one
or two articles and then leaving because that is all the information they need
from the site. By having the majority of our content be articles that are really just
press releases, we’re not giving visitors anything to stick around for, and yes,
Caesars podcast is something that could keep them there, but it’s so hidden on
the site, that you would have to actually know about before visiting, there is no
promotion for it within the actual site.
o Pages Per Visit
Pages per visit is self-explanatory. It is however many pages are visited per visit.
As we can see from the table, people on SBD visit about 1.76 pages per visit, but
on Sneaker News, they visit about 2.9 pages per visit. Now what is interesting is
that both numbers are far below the web average of 4.6. I think that for our
SneakerBarDetroit.com Sneaker News.com Web Averages
Bounce Rate % 73.63% 61.60% 40-60%
Pages Per Visit 1.76 2.9 4.6
Visit Duration 11:02 6:50 3:10

11. website, we would want more pages per visit. I think this so that way, while
people are on our site, they are learning as much as they can about new shoes
and announcements. By having certain pieces of content hidden, like The
Sneaker Box podcast, we are severely limiting the number of pages that
someone may visit. And by only really showing sneaker announcements right at
the top of the home page, we’re not giving our visitors something unique to pull
them into our website, they can get the news from anywhere, we need to give
them a reason to come to SBD and stay there.
o Average Visit Duration
The average visit duration is also self-explanatory. It is how long someone stays
on the site. Now, for once, SBD comes out on top. SBD has an average visit
duration of about 11 minutes while Sneaker News only has an average of a little
less than 7 minutes. These are both far above the web average of a little over 3
minutes. This is a great number that we have, it means that people are staying
on the site when they get there, and SBD should capitalize on this number by
promoting other elements of their content, such as the podcast. By promoting
other content that isn’t just other announcements, I think it will keep people
staying longer and reading more, and in turn, seeing more ads, so we can make
more money to keep the site going for longer and continue to provide content to
the sneakerhead community.

12.  Value Content & Engagement Improvement Recommendation
My idea for a meaningful piece of content that could be added is a “this day in sneaker
history,” type thing. History.com does something similar to this, with this day in history.
I think that adding this to the website with really help with the community engagement.
Not only is it an
interesting way to
engage with the
sneakerhead
community that
already knows a fair amount about sneakers by reminding them of the past history of
sneakers, I also feel that it would be a really interesting way to introduce someone to
the idea of collectible sneakers and the world of sneakerheads. Having a fun fact base
like this everyday for someone who is a new sneakerhead could provide them with
some invaluable insight into what shoes get released at what time of year, or it’s just a
fun way for them to learn even more about the community they joined or provide some
talking points for them to mention the next time they come across a fellow
sneakerhead.
Popularity Analysis
Total Backlinks No. of Referring Domains Average No. of Backlinks Per Domain
SneakerBarDetroit.com 6383762 6453 989
SneakerNews.com 5234232 15993 327

13. o Definitions
As you can see from the data, SBD has about a million more backlinks than Sneaker
News, but has about half of the referring domains that Sneaker News has. This is
important to note because it means that we can come to a basic conclusion that
many of those backlinks for SBD are on the same domains. A backlink is just a link
back to the site, and a referring domain is another website that has the link on it. It’s
important to calculate the average number of backlinks per domain because it just
because we have a lot of backlinks doesn’t mean they are all spread out on multiple
websites. The average is just a nice way to get a base number for how many links are
on sites.
o Analysis of Link Domain
The data clearly shows that just because SBD has more backlinks doesn’t mean
that it will have a lower average number of backlinks, which is what you would
want. You want to have many websites having links to your website because that
means that all your links are spread out more amongst the internet and other
websites, meaning that there are even more places to be able to find a link to
the website. SBD may have more backlinks, but it has fewer referring domains
which means that it has a far higher average number of backlinks. On the other
hand, Sneaker News has less links, but more referring domains which means that
the average number will be lower, which is what you want. To make it clear, I
would much rather have 1 link on 10 websites than 10 links on 1 website.

14. o Analysis of Link Quality
When we look at the quality of the links for SBD, we see that the top 10 links
have domain ratings that are high, minus a few exceptions. And their URL ratings
are about less than 50. Most of the links are just variations of different Wikipedia
pages that SBD has helped contribute to in some way. And when we look at the
restricted domains, we see that they are also very small numbers. All this data
gives us the conclusion that SBD is not being linked by many very high-quality
websites. When we look at Sneaker News, the top 10 links have domain ratings
that are half in the 90s and the other half far lower than 50. And for the URL
ratings, only 2 are above 50 while all the rest are below. With their restricted
domains, they have about the same number of domains. In conclusion for
Sneaker News, they are also not being linked by very many high-quality sources.
All in all, both websites need to be a little more concerned about what is linking
back to their site, and not have the “any press is good press,” mentality.
SlideShare Link:

15. Works Cited
Bryant, Rashone. "Event Recap: Michigan Sneaker XChange (MSXC) 2014." Sneaker Bar Detroit,
Aug. 12, 2014, https://sneakerbardetroit.com/event-recap-michigan-sneaker-xchange-msxc-
2014/
Dunne, Brendan. "StockX Just Had Its Biggest Months Ever." Complex, July 13, 2020,
https://www.complex.com/sneakers/2020/07/stockx-biggest-months-ever-may-june-2020
Dunne, Brendan, et. al. "The Best Sneakers of 2020 (So Far)." Complex, July 7, 2020,
https://www.complex.com/sneakers/best-sneakers-2020-so-far/
Griffith, Erin. "Buy Low-Tops, Sell High-Tops: StockX Sneaker Exchange is Worth $1 Billion." The
New York Times, June 26, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/26/technology/trading-
sneakers-stockx.html
Moin, David. "COVID-19 Response: Sneakers Hit High Note Online." Yahoo!Life, August 6, 2020,
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/covid-19-response-sneakers-hit-191738680.html
Powell, Matt. "Sneakernomics: First Half 2020 Athletic Footwear and Activewear Sales Results."
The NPD Group, https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/blog/2020/sneakernomics-first-
half-2020-athletic-footwear-and-activewear-sales-results/#.XyRaw2NrB1k.twitter