How to Cop Limited Sneakers: Complete Beginner Guide
A step-by-step guide for beginners on how to set up sneaker bots, proxies, and accounts to successfully purchase limited release sneakers.
Limited sneaker releases sell out in seconds. Trying to buy manually against thousands of bots is nearly impossible. This guide walks you through the entire process of setting up a sneaker bot operation from scratch, including the tools, proxies, and strategies you need to start hitting on releases.
What You Need to Get Started
A sneaker bot. This is the software that automates the checkout process. Popular options include Wrath, Kodai, Tohru, and Prism. Each bot has different strengths depending on which sites you target. Research which bot performs best on the sites you want to hit before purchasing.
Proxies. ISP proxies are the standard for sneaker botting. They provide the speed needed for fast checkouts and the residential trust level that passes bot detection. Start with 25 ISP proxies for your first attempts.
Server or fast computer. Sneaker bots are resource-intensive when running many tasks simultaneously. A cloud server with low latency to the target site's servers gives you a speed advantage over running locally.
Payment profiles. You will need credit or debit cards and shipping addresses. Some botters use virtual cards to run multiple payment profiles. Make sure your billing information matches your shipping address to avoid order cancellations.
Setting Up Your Bot
Every bot has a different interface, but the general setup process is similar. You will create tasks (each task is one checkout attempt), assign proxies to those tasks, enter your payment and shipping information, and configure the product you want to purchase.
For your first release, keep it simple. Run 10 to 15 tasks with one proxy per task. This gives you a reasonable chance of hitting without overloading your setup.
Choosing the Right Proxies
ISP proxies are recommended for almost all sneaker sites. They offer the best combination of speed and stealth. Make sure your proxies support SOCKS5, as many bots perform better with this protocol.
Avoid datacenter proxies for Nike, Adidas, and Footlocker. These sites have aggressive bot detection that blocks datacenter IPs on sight. Residential proxies work but are slower than ISP proxies, which can cost you on fast-selling releases.
Release Day Strategy
Test everything the day before. Run your bot with a test product to verify that your proxies connect, your payment profiles work, and your tasks start correctly. Finding a problem during the release is too late.
Start tasks early. Most bots have a "start at" function that begins tasks at a specific time. Set your tasks to start 30 seconds to 1 minute before the release time to ensure you are in the queue when the product goes live.
Monitor and adjust. Watch your bot's dashboard during the release. If tasks are failing, check whether it is a proxy issue, a payment issue, or a site-side problem. Be ready to restart tasks with fresh proxies if needed.
After the Release
If you hit, confirm your orders quickly. Check your email for order confirmations and verify the charges on your payment methods. Some sites cancel suspicious orders after the fact, so keep an eye on your order status for the first 24 hours.
If you did not hit, review what happened. Check your bot logs to understand where tasks failed. Was it at the queue stage, the cart stage, or the payment stage? This information helps you optimize your setup for the next release.