I'm a big fan of the system that the sneaker companies have slowly adopted. Interested people sign up ahead of time with a registered account. You get a notification right before the release that you have to confirm. Then a raffle takes places where the winner gets charged immediately. It's about a ten mInute investment, which with how sneaker quality has gone down in recent years (especially Nike) is about all the time it is worth it to me anymore.
Only issue I can see is that with sneakers there is almost no reason to get more than one pair unless you're reselling. Buying multiple tickets for a concert makes more sense. There could possibly be some increasing fee charged over a certain number, that could suck profit away from scalpers. The fee only occurs if the tickets are all presold.
This is effectively the system used by the popular festivals in the UK, particularly Glastonbury. You need to pre-register for tickets, which involves uploading photos. When it goes on sale, only pre-registered users can buy, and the photos are checked on entry. Other festivals do the simpler thing of checking the names on the booking against ID. Many allow a secondary market in tickets, but only at or below face value for those who are unable to go. This shows what can be done if they really do want to stop scalpers.
Non automatable hoops to jump through can definitely be a good way to determine who “deserves” the tickets. There’s technological ways to do that, but it’s a magic sauce that would make a company a lot of money.
Only issue I can see is that with sneakers there is almost no reason to get more than one pair unless you're reselling. Buying multiple tickets for a concert makes more sense. There could possibly be some increasing fee charged over a certain number, that could suck profit away from scalpers. The fee only occurs if the tickets are all presold.