Adidas kicked off the new week with the release of the Yeezy Boost 350 V2 steel in South Africa and other regions, close to two years after the brand severed ties with Kanye West.
Adidas Drops Yeezy Boost V2 Steel
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On Monday, 26 February 2024, Adiclub members received an email noting the limited availability of the sneaker.
Priced at R4 499, all sizes were still available when this article was published, a rare occasion for Yeezy sneakers, which usually sell out as soon as they are released by Adidas.
This trend follows a series of Yeezy releases Adidas snuck into its online store, quietly rummaging for revenue from one of its highest-earning partnerships while, in the public forum, standing against Kanye West’s supposed antisemitism.
Why is Adidas Releasing Yeezy Sneakers Post-breakup with Kanye West?
Following its separation from Kanye West due to his antisemitic and other offensive comments, Adidas was left with a significant stock of unsold Yeezy merchandise.
Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden, in May 2023, expressed that selling this inventory and donating a portion of the proceeds represented the most effective approach to both manage the unsold stock and make a positive societal impact.
The company engaged with various nongovernmental organisations and groups harmed by West’s actions to determine an appropriate course of action.
A share of the profits from these sales is being directed to the Anti-Defamation League and the Philonise and Keeta Floyd Institute for Social Change.
Furthermore, sales in North America include a blue square pin, symbolising a stand against antisemitism, aligning with values promoted by Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism.
Speculation still hangs on whether Kanye West, the ideator of the Yeezy brand, receives royalties on releases post-breakup. Responding to reporters in 2023, Adidas simply stated that “we will honour our contractual obligations and enforce our rights but will not share any more details.”
Kanye West, Ty Dolla Sign’s ‘Vultures 1’ Album Spends Second Week Atop Billboard 200 Chart
Simultaneously, Kanye West (now known as Ye) and Ty Dolla $ign’s album, Vultures 1, continues to achieve commercial success, despite an industry-wide boycott.
Without radio airplay, playlist promotion and other conventional sales tactics employed by major record labels to ‘fudge the numbers’ for to-earning artists, Vultures 1 retained the top spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart, with 75,000 equivalent album units earned in its second week in the US.
This marks Ye’s first album to secure multiple weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 since 2011’s Watch the Throne with Jay-Z.