Should you buy sneakers on Black Friday or wait?

$125, then $132On Black Friday weekend 2025, the older shoe with the most sales cost $7 more than two weeks before.Photo: GOAT$122 both timesThe 'Rain Cloud' sold for the same price before Black Friday and during it.Photo: GOAT$147.50, then $142The wheat Timberland boot was one that dipped, by $5.50.Photo: StockX

Stores cut prices on Black Friday. On GOAT and StockX, the price is whatever a buyer and a seller agree on. So does the same shoe get cheaper that weekend?

Last year it did not. On Black Friday weekend 2025, the typical shoe sold for the same price as in the two weeks before. Two weeks later, shoes sold for about 2% more than on the weekend. That is one year, not a rule.

Each shoe compared with itself, GOAT and StockX. What happened in 2025, not a forecast for 2026.

Eight shoes, before, during and after

The eight older shoes (out before October 2025) with the most sales that weekend. Prices are the middle sale.

0%: the typical price change on Black Friday weekend, across 7,330 shoes.

Six of these eight cost a little more on the weekend. Across all 7,330 shoes it evens out: 1,972 sold at least 5% cheaper, 2,040 at least 5% higher, and 3,318 stayed within 5%.

The one dip: Cyber Monday on StockX

On Cyber Monday 2025, a fee-free day on StockX, the same shoes sold for about 2% less there than in the two weeks before (2,762 shoes; that post measures the promo hours and gets -3.7%). On the other four days, and on GOAT, prices did not fall.

What did change: how many pairs sold

GOAT and StockX recorded 101,283 sneaker sales on Black Friday 2025. That is 1.6 to 3.2 times the Fridays around it:

Part of that was one new shoe: the Jordan 4 'Black Cat' came out that day. Without the shoes released that week, Black Friday had 80,458 sales, 1.3 to 2.6 times the same four Fridays.

Many shoes are already under retail

Plenty of shoes sell under retail with no sale at all. In October 2026, 286 of the 500 best-selling adult sneakers sold for less than retail, 236 of them at least 10% under.

Last year the shoe mattered more than the date. Look up your pair in the price checker and read how to tell if a price is a good deal. For the hours, the map and what sold, see the Black Friday story.

Past sales, not a forecast for 2026.

How we counted

GOAT and StockX sales, Nov 13, 2025 to Jan 12, 2026, US Eastern days; sneakers and boots, no cleats. In the price counts a "shoe" is one listing on one site with 3+ sales in October 2025, 5+ sales in both periods, and no release between Nov 20 and Dec 1; we compare its median in the two periods. The four comparisons and their tests were written down before the query ran. The table pools both sites by style code (Timberland: StockX only) and leaves out three Jordans released in November or December 2025 (all three were lower on the weekend). Friday counts are sales we recorded, not the whole market. Below retail: October 2026 sales (complete on both sites; the newest days can still gain a few %) against StockX's listed retail price, adult pairs only; the story's 278 of 500 includes kids' sizes. US prices.