Adidas Yeezy is a fashion collaboration between the German sportswear brand Adidas and American designer Kanye West. The collaboration has become notable for its high-end sneakers, and the Yeezy Boost sneaker line has been considered one of the most influential sneaker brands in the world. The collaboration has also produced shirts, jackets, track pants, socks, women's shoes and their newly released slides.
History
Kanye West originally designed a shoe for Adidas in 2006, but it was never released. The first brand to officially collaborate with Kanye West was Bape. Together, West and Bape released a pair of Bapesta "College Dropout" shoes, which are now quite rare and garner high resell prices. He has also designed shoes for Louis Vuitton and Giuseppe Zanotti, and Nike. His collaboration with Nike lasted for five years and led to the release of a total of three sneaker styles. In 2013, after the release of the "Red October" Air Yeezy 2s, Kanye West officially left Nike. Although West described this break as "heartbreaking", he claimed that Nike would not pay him royalties for his shoe designs, instead offering to pay some of the proceeds to a charity of West's choice. This ultimately led West to reach out to Adidas. Adidas agreed to give him royalties, and West described the CEO of Adidas as "someone who allowed to build something". In February 2015, a year and three months after the confirmation of the Adidas and Kanye West collaboration, the collaboration officially debuted. "Yeezy Season 1" was highly anticipated and celebrities such as Rihanna, Diddy, and Kim Kardashian were at the showing. "Yeezy Season 2" and "Yeezy Season 3" also saw notable amounts of success upon their releases. During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Yeezy received a $2–5 million Paycheck Protection Program loan to help it retain its 106 employees.
Clothing
"Yeezy Season 1" was released on October 29, 2015, and was the first apparel collection to release from this collaboration. This collection was noted for its stripped-down, ready-to-wear style, which drew on military clothing and flesh-toned colors. The prices ranged from $600 for sweatpants to $3,000 for jackets. Although the footwear sold out quickly, the apparel collection did not. West revealed in a 2018 interview that he was in talks with Louis Vuitton for a $30 million apparel deal. The deal was not approved by the LVMH board and West was left with no clothing partners. After the "Yeezy Season 1" show, Adidas announced they would no longer be a part of Yeezy apparel, instead focusing on the footwear collection with West. With Yeezy Season 6, Adidas and West re-introduced several articles of clothing with Adidas branding.
Footwear
Through a combination of factors including popularization by celebrities, Adidas Yeezy sneakers have come to be extremely influential and highly coveted. Most of the shoes utilize Adidas's Boost material.
Yeezy Boost 750
On December 3, 2013, Adidas confirmed a new shoe collaboration deal with West. The initial release of the Adidas Yeezy Boost 750 "Light Brown" was limited to 9000 pairs and sold out within 10 minutes. Between February 21 and February 28, the Yeezy Boost 750 "Light Brown" was available through a wider range of retailers and boutiques.
Yeezy Boost 350
On June 27, 2015, the second shoe from the collaboration, the Yeezy Boost 350 was made available through a worldwide release.
Yeezy 950
The Yeezy 950 was first released on October 29, 2015 at select retail stores and online. It was part of the Yeezy season 1 collection and came in four different colorways: Peyote, Moonrock, Chocolate, and Pirate black. Each shoe was retailed at $399. "The Adidas Yeezy 950 extended the Kanye West and Adidas partnership outside of the sneaker space with its military duckboot inspired design." There have been no further releases of the sneaker.
Yeezy 350 Cleat
The Adidas Yeezy 350 Football Boost cleat was designed for football and it had made its first appearance in a 2016 NFL kickoff game. Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins was fined for $6,000 for wearing the cleats because they broke the NFL uniform policy by not having a solid base colour.
Yeezy Powerphase Calabasas
The Adidas Powerphase Calabasas was released on March 28, 2017. "The retro sneakers are an update of an Adidas trainer from the ’80s They feature a premium white leather upper with perforated stripes, green Adidas branding, and a red Trefoil logo." A tonal grey colorway released globally on December 9, 2017 for a retail price of $120; a "Core Black" colorway released shortly after on March 17, 2018. After the initial 3 colourways of the Yeezy Powerphase Calabasas, Adidas then continued releasing several Powerphase Boost without the Yeezy Calabasas branding.Adidas then brought back the '80s Adidas Trainer model that is the "YEEZY-Inspired Powerphase Model."
Yeezy Boost 700
The Adidas Yeezy Boost 700 was debuted during the Yeezy Season 5 fashion show in 2017. The shoe released on August 12, 2017, for $300, exclusively via Yeezy Supply. At the time, two colourways of white/gum and black were also expected to release in 2018. On March 23, 2019, the 700 V2 “Geode” colourway was released synchronously with a nationwide lemonade stand charity campaign raising money for the National Alliance of Mental Illness.
Yeezy 500
Desert Rat Colorway - This Adidas Yeezy 500 was released in December 2017, as a pre-order with delivery slated for March 2018.
Yeezy Boost 380
The first Adidas Yeezy Boost 380 was released in December 2019, as a surprise release on West's clothing launch site Yeezy Supply. The debut colorway was known as "Alien."
