Tanner & Co.: Where Sneakers, Watches, and Live Selling Collide
Tanner & Co.: Where Sneakers, Watches, and Live Selling Collide
When Houston native Tanner Maldonado launched Tanner & Co. in 2011, he wasn’t trying to reinvent the wheel. He simply wanted to fuse everything he loved—sneakers, sports, fashion, and culture—into one experience. “I didn’t want to be locked into one thing,” he says. “If I’d called it Tanner’s Kicks, everyone would think it was just about sneakers. The idea was always bigger than that.”
That idea grew into an international pre-owned luxury watch and sneaker dealership, trusted for new and vintage pieces from Rolex, Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, Hublot, Bvlgari and more. The goal, Maldonado says, “is to bring the latest and greatest to your door—anything that creates an experience.”
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Brand First, Product Second
Tanner & Co.’s mantra is simple: brand first, product second. “I could auction Rolexes from a farm with Wi-Fi and they’d still sell,” Maldonado says. “But if you don’t build a brand, nobody cares what you’re selling.”
That philosophy extends to Tanner & Co.’s own merch. Each drop is limited and never reissued, so when a shirt sells out—like the fan-favorite “Days Are Expensive” tee—it’s gone forever. “Every piece is a moment in time,” he explains.
Breaking Through on Live Streams
The breakthrough came when the Tanner & Co. founder stepped in front of a camera. After executive roles at Microsoft and Finish Line honed his on-the-fly presentation skills, he hosted a pilot livestream for StockX on NTWRK in 2023. “They could have picked anyone with a huge following, but the CEO called me personally,” he recalls. “We crushed it, and they signed a three-year deal.”
That debut convinced him that live selling is the future of retail. “Stagnant listings and websites will keep getting challenged. Customers want to see, touch, feel, and experience the purchase,” he says.
Today, Tanner & Co.’s regular eBay Live shows—highlighting watches, sneakers, and other style essentials—are the company’s engine and the heartbeat of its community. From shows like “Dollar Watch Club” to live sneaker broadcasts from ComplexCon, Tanner and Co. are bringing curated live sales experiences to a growing legion of followers.
Sneakers, Watches, and Storytelling
Sneakers helped build the brand, but watches captured Maldonado’s imagination. He views timepieces as symbols of personal style and a reminder that time itself is priceless. “Your watch tells a lot about you,” he says. “Not the brand, but how you put it together. Time is the one thing you can’t get back.”
He’s sold pieces to everyone from pro skaters to boxing champion Canelo Álvarez, treating every sale as a mini-event: orchestrating the chat, calling out bidders by name, and keeping the presentation simple, but compelling, making everyone feel part of the show.
The Celebrity Parallel
Tanner & Co. thrives in the same arena where celebrity collectors turn watches and sneakers into cultural currency. Tom Brady recently auctioned 21 watches for $4.6 million, while John Mayer’s praise of the green-dial Rolex Daytona sent that model soaring past half a million dollars. LeBron James, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer regularly spark market surges just by wearing a new reference.
Sneakers inspire the same frenzy: actor Jason Sudeikis rotates rare Air Jordan 1 lows on Ted Lasso, and megastars like DJ Khaled, Mark Wahlberg, Travis Scott, and Kylie Jenner are tastemakers and members of the sneakerhead community—albeit with a bit more resources than the average collector.
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Community With a Purpose
Behind the flash is a deeper mission. Every Tanner & Co. show—and ones he guest hosts for partners—ends with Maldonado’s non-negotiable sign-off: a call for positivity, mental-health awareness, addiction recovery, and preventive care. He lost his brother to addiction and insists on keeping humanity at the center of the business. “People might come for the watches,” he says, “but they stay because they know we care.”
A Collector at Heart
Despite the hustle, Maldonado still collects for himself—vintage Michael Jordan cards, classic sneakers, and the occasional modern grail. “It’s not about the value,” he says. “It’s the nostalgia. Those cards take me right back to my childhood.”
For Tanner Maldonado, every drop, every livestream, and every handshake reinforces the same principle: build the brand, and the product will follow. In a world where celebrity taste can move markets overnight, Tanner & Co. stands out by creating moments customers remember long after the sale.
Lucas Mast is a writer based in California’s Bay Area, where he’s a season ticket holder for St. Mary’s basketball and a die-hard Stanford athletics fan. A lifelong collector of sneakers, sports cards, and pop culture, he also advises companies shaping the future of the hobby and sports. He’s driven by a curiosity about why people collect—and what those items reveal about the moments and memories that matter most.
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