‘Forever tarnished’ Yeezys are selling cheap online – no one wants to wear Kanye West’s shoes and get judged for it, say insiders
For sneaker aficionado Manuel Cruz, shoes have always been more than something to wear.
Smart buys have led to big sales for the collector: Cruz once offloaded dozens of pairs of sneakers, including some from Kanye West’s Yeezy brand, for US$24,000.
Now, however, his side hustle is on hold.
Among Cruz’s collection are 20 pairs of Yeezys worth nearly US$5,000 in all but – in the aftermath of 45-year-old West’s recent anti-Semitic remarks on Twitter and sportswear brand Adidas’ move to sever ties with him – the resale market for Yeezy footwear and apparel is declining dramatically.
Anecdotal evidence and interviews with retail experts indicate that sellers are slashing prices of West-related products as they compete for a shrinking pool of consumers.
Online resale platform Grailed saw discounts of 30 per cent or more on Yeezy items on October 25. On StockX, a competitor website, eight of the top 10 most popular Yeezy sneakers showed a decline in “last sale” prices.
Kanye West dropped by talent agency, documentary scrapped
The situation has left Cruz reeling. “It’s very hard to know what to do,” says Cruz, 40. “Because of the amount I spent on those shoes, I have to hold on to them. I’m just sitting tight on everything.”
West has, over the past few weeks, been dropped by multiple brands for expressing a virulently anti-Semitic world view. In one interview, West spoke of a Jewish-controlled media and suggested Jewish doctors wrongly had him admitted to hospital and publicised his bipolar disorder diagnosis.
High-fashion house Balenciaga and Gap have also ended their partnerships with West, and he has been dropped by mega Hollywood talent agency CAA.
Neil Saunders, a retail analyst at analytics and consulting company GlobalData, says it makes for a stunning, self-inflicted loss of business.
“That is pretty exceptional to have this many partnerships ended, and with such high-profile companies as well,” Saunders says. “These are massive brands. They had to end the partnerships with Ye, because Ye’s comments are really outside of morality.”
West, who also goes by Ye, did not respond to a request for comment.
The hip-hop musician and producer began dabbling in apparel and footwear in the late 2000s, collaborating with companies including A Bathing Ape, Louis Vuitton and Nike.
Later, he started working with Adidas, which began producing Yeezy sneakers in 2013. West struck a deal with clothing retailer Gap in 2020 to design adult and kids’ clothing, releasing the first items in 2021. One item, a US$90 sweatshirt, sold out within hours.
West’s fashion success has proved lucrative: before his recent comments, his net worth was pegged at US$2 billion by Forbes magazine, with the publication attributing 75 per cent of that valuation to the Adidas deal. With the loss of that relationship, Forbes says, West is no longer a billionaire.
Yeezy sneakers have, for years, been a highly coveted item. A thriving secondary market has ensured that collectors who miss out on limited-edition drops can pick up what they want – for a steep price.
This paradigm was turbocharged during the first year or so of the coronavirus pandemic, with collectible sneakers and apparel rapidly rising in value alongside luxury assets like watches, wine, art and cars.
Now the market for West’s wares is trending downward – steeply. Saunders says that “anyone who is holding Yeezy merchandise with the hope of making a mint out of it on the secondary market is going to be very disappointed”. “The value of those things has gone down,” he says. “People don’t want to be associated with Kanye right now.”
That was evident at Cool Kicks, a shoe store and reseller located in Los Angeles, in the US state of California. The store was busier than normal on October 25, says co-owner Adeel Shams, and much of it had to do with Yeezys.
“People are panic-selling them,” says Shams, who noted that 80 per cent of the shoes sold were Yeezys. “Some of them are worried about wearing them in public and being judged.”
One popular online platform, The RealReal, has entirely opted out, choosing to no longer allow Yeezy listings. So far, competing services have not followed suit.
George Belch, marketing department chairman at San Diego State University, says that in the current era – in which companies are increasingly scrutinised “for the positions they take on social, political and economic issues” – a lack of action on the West controversy “could backfire on them”.
“Saying nothing is equal to saying something in a lot of people’s minds,” he says. “If you are silent on an issue, that silence is sending a message.”
StockX, Grailed, Goat and eBay did not respond to requests for comment about the presence of Yeezy items on their websites.
There will almost certainly continue to be a market for Yeezy shoes and apparel – but its size is an open question. “The market is not going to go down to zero,” Belch says. “People may be seeing this as an investment opportunity.”
Still, Saunders expects the residue of anti-Semitism to cling to West, making it hard to see a path forward for the brand.
“With Yeezy … it is directly linked to him,” Saunders says. “So anything now that Yeezy wants to do is clouded by these comments made by Kanye. That makes it very difficult for the brand to grow or evolve. It is forever tarnished.”
For his part, Shams believes there could still be a market for Yeezy sneakers, but it is too soon to tell. He says the value of some models could skyrocket “now that Adidas and others won’t be carrying them any more”.
“There are going to be two kinds of people,” Shams says. “The people who are panicking and trying to monetise them right now. And there are going to be the holders. They will buy them now and hold them for like a year or so because they think they will increase in value.”
For collectibles, an end to production can drive prices higher, Belch says. “It’s the scarcity factor – people who invest in these things, they play that card all the time,” he says. “They are looking at it as an investment. My guess is a lot of these people couldn’t care less about the controversy.”
Indeed, on YouTube at least, some sneakerheads are not fazed by West’s anti-Semitism. Others see it as an opportunity to buy low.
On a popular YouTube video titled “No more Yeezys! Adidas terminates Yeezy deal with Kanye West”, one commenter expressed displeasure with the timing of the announcement.
“I wish they waited just a week or so,” the commenter wrote. “Was hoping to get the 500 utility black for retail.”
