Shoe & Sneaker Identifier App
Names a pair from a photograph, grades its condition, and sets a resale estimate beside retail and market.
Listed on the App Store as “Shoe Scanner”
Free on iPhone & iPad · An estimate, never an appraisal
Shoe ScannerName a pair, grade it, and know what it fetches.
Photograph a sneaker and the instrument names the brand, model and colourway, grades its condition from deadstock to worn, gives an original-or-replica reading with its confidence, and sets a resale estimate beside the retail and market price.
Sneakers & trainers
Three moves, and you have a figure
You photograph it. The instrument reads it. You know where you stand.
You photograph it
One photograph. Nothing to fill in, nothing to send away.
It reads what it sees
The reading happens there and then, on the phone.
You have a figure to work from
A range, in seconds — enough to know where you stand.
What a photograph can and cannot settle
Photograph a sneaker and Shoe Scanner names the brand, the model and the colourway it appears to be, with the year it was released. It grades the condition it can see, from deadstock to worn, gives an original-or-replica reading with its confidence, and sets a resale estimate beside the retail price and the market's. It is made for the three moments a pair costs or makes money: buying second-hand, pricing a pair to sell, and deciding whether a pair deserves a paid authentication.
Sneakers are the one object in this case whose price lives in a name most owners have never read. Two pairs with the same shape can differ by a colourway and a release year, and that difference is where the money is — so the instrument's first job is to say exactly which pair you are holding.
| The question | How far a photograph gets | What settles it |
|---|---|---|
| Which model and colourway? | Strong. The silhouette names the model, the colour blocking narrows the colourway. | The style code on the label inside the tongue, matched to the box. |
| Which size? | No. | The size label inside the tongue. |
| What condition is it in? | Good. Creasing, a yellowed midsole, scuffs and stains all photograph. | The insole, the heel lining and the outsole, in hand. |
| Original or replica? | A reading with its confidence, from stitching, logo geometry and proportion. | Materials, glue, weight, and whether tag and box agree — then a specialist. |
| What will it fetch? | A range, set beside the retail price and the market's. | Recent sold prices in that size and condition, less the platform's fees. |
Replicas are built from photographs of genuine pairs. A photograph is the medium in which they do best.
One silhouette, a hundred prices
A sneaker model is released again and again — new colourways, collaborations, retro runs of an old colourway decades after the first — and pairs that share a shape can be worlds apart in price. The trade prices a pair by its exact colourway and release, not by its silhouette, which is why a listing that says only the model name tells a buyer almost nothing.
The instrument reads the pair the way a reseller would: silhouette first, then colour blocking and materials, then the details that separate one release from its look-alikes. Where two releases are too close to call from the outside, the label inside the tongue settles it, because the style code printed there names one release and no other.
Condition is half the price
A pair that has never been worn and still has its box is sold as deadstock, and everything after the first wear is priced down from there. The instrument grades what a camera can see — creasing across the toe box, a midsole gone yellow, scuffs, stains and sole wear — and says where on that scale the pair sits.
What it cannot see is what a buyer checks next: the insole, the lining at the heel, any separation where the sole meets the upper, and whether the original box, laces and accessories are still with the pair. Each of those moves the figure, and the honest resale estimate is the one made after they are known.
Why authentication is a different job
Counterfeit sneakers are made by studying genuine pairs, and their makers know which details are photographed. Logo shape, stitching on the visible panels and the print on the tongue are where they spend their effort. What costs them money is harder to copy: the right leather and suede, the weight of the pair, clean construction inside the shoe where nobody photographs, and a label inside the tongue that agrees with the box in every particular.
The instrument gives a reading, original or replica, with its confidence and the reasons behind it. A low confidence is a reason to stop; a high one is a strong first signal, not a certificate.
- Read the label inside the tongue and the label on the box. The style code, the size and the colourway must agree.
- Hold the pair. Weight, stiffness and the feel of the materials are hard to fake and impossible to photograph.
- Look inside: stitching, the insole and the glue around the sole.
- Only then the logos and the print — the easiest things to copy.
How to photograph a pair
For the instrument, one clean photograph of the whole shoe from the side. For a buyer, a seller or an authenticator, the rest of the set below, because it is the set that a careful buyer will ask for.
- The side profile, whole shoe in frame, in indirect daylight, no flash.
- The label inside the tongue, flat and in focus.
- The box label, if there is a box.
- The outsole and the heel, where wear shows first and honestly.
- The insole and the toe box from above.
Where the instrument ends
It ends at the word authentic. The house names, grades and estimates; it does not authenticate, examines no pair in person, and issues no certificates, and every figure is indicative. If the reading suggests a valuable pair, the next step is a platform that inspects pairs in hand or a specialist authentication service — and the journal in the shoe room sets out which platforms actually do it.
Frequently asked
Is there an app to identify shoes?
Yes — Shoe Scanner names a sneaker's brand, model, colourway and release year from a photograph, grades its condition and sets a resale estimate beside the retail and market price. It identifies and estimates; it does not certify.
Can an app tell if sneakers are fake?
It can give a reading — Shoe Scanner returns original or replica with a confidence level, from stitching, logo geometry and proportion — but no photograph can certify a pair, because replicas are built from photographs of genuine ones. For a valuable pair, the match between the tongue label and the box, and a physical inspection, settle it.
How do I find out what my sneakers are worth?
Name the exact model and colourway first, then the size and the condition, because each moves the price. Shoe Scanner sets a resale estimate beside the retail and market price; check recent sold prices for your size rather than asking prices, and deduct what the platform keeps.
Where is the style code on a sneaker?
On the label sewn inside the tongue, and on the label at the end of the box. It names one release — model and colourway together — which is why it settles look-alike pairs a photograph cannot.
Is Shoe Scanner free?
It is free to try on iPhone and iPad, and every figure it gives is an estimate rather than an appraisal or an authentication.
Is there an Android version of Shoe Scanner?
Not at present. Shoe Scanner is on the App Store, for iPhone and iPad.
The free tools and notes that go with it
A Lovenhall instrument reads a photograph and returns an estimate. Nobody at the Registry examines the piece, and no professional opinion is given. It is not a certificate of authenticity, an appraisal, a gemmological report, or a guarantee of value; any figure is indicative only, and independent verification is always advised before a purchase or sale.
№ VII · ShoeRead the piece itself
A page takes you as far as words can. Photograph the piece with the instrument and start from a figure — an estimate, which is where you begin and never where you finish.