not purely.
it is important to know your local sneaker stores and when they are having releases. This way you can anticipate a sale and camp out at the store. There is never a time to be too early to buy sneakers, 1,3,8 or even 24 hours.
Yu have to understand that the same sneakers that are dropping at 12am are dropping in stores usually at opening time, not release time.
So there is know use trying to buy limited stock online, cause u could literally just log on and get lucky, or u could stress and get nowhere.
so contacts do help, but you have to do some work