The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 387 — A generational fumble
The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 387 — A generational fumble
Kanye West needed Adidas more than Adidas needed him.
Good morning, folks! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for reading today. I appreciate you.
Big thank you to the folks at Business of Fashion for including me on a panel this week to talk about their latest case study on Adidas by Daniel-Yaw Miller. It’s great work. If you’re a subscriber, you should definitely take a peek. We’ll be getting into some Adidas stuff today.
Before that, real quick:
What I’m rocking 👟: The New Balance 740 seems like it’s going to be the next trendy model for the brand like the 1906 was this year. I cannot recommend this pair enough. So comfy. Cost-effective. Stylish. It’s great.
On my radar 👀: I think I just fell in love with the Wizard of Oz Dunks? I don’t see the Wizard of Oz connection, but I’m itching to see what the underneath layer of these looks like. Those drop during the holiday season this year. I think I’ll be grabbing a pair.
Let’s dive in.
The door is officially closed
It’s been two years since Adidas cut ties with Kanye West in October 2022. Most of the contact between both sides has been through lawyers.
The two sides have been in a legal battle over the last year, with Adidas claiming West mishandled marketing dollars and West counterclaiming Adidas stole his designs.
The news: Company CEO Bjorn Gulden announced that the lawsuit had been settled during Tuesday's Adidas’ third quarter earnings call. The two sides agreed to let bygones be bygones. Neither side received damages from the other.
What he said: “There isn’t any more open issues, and there is no … money going either way, and we both move on.”
This is the last official contact either side will have with the other. There’s no relitigating this. They also won’t ever work together again. The relationship is completely over.
There’s no way I’d have believed you if you told me this is how things would’ve turned out back in 2015. Yeezy and Adidas separated? Couldn’t be. Not with how hot things were. Remember the whole “Yeezy jumped over the Jumpman” thing? That was real. Adidas was deeply invested in the brand. Yeezy had a chance to become the biggest footwear brand in the world.
And West threw it all away.
Real talk: Over the last few years, we’ve heard people (including myself) talk about everything Adidas lost by cutting ties with Yeezy. Rightfully so — the brand suffered its first financial loss in 30 years because of the cut.
But Adidas is bouncing back now, as evidenced by this earnings call. Currency-neutral sales are up 10 percent year over year and the brand has a gross margin of 51.3 percent, according to company data. The brand isn’t where it was at its peak, but it’s healthy.
Where is Yeezy now? The most prominent product that West’s new YZY (pronounced Yeezy) brand has produced is probably the $20 YZY pods, which are literally just nylon socks with soles attached. Steven Smith has walked away. West seems to become increasingly unhinged every time we hear him speak.
You tell me who needed who more? I think it’s pretty clear which side is in better shape now.
The big picture: This was truly a generational fumble from West. He lost:
An annual $100 million marketing budget to do whatever he wanted with.
Creative control over the designs and products coming from his brand.
A massive 15 percent royalty on net sales with $3 million guaranteed annually.
Nobody else had a contract anywhere close to that — not even Michael Jordan himself. West had the best contract in the footwear industry. And he burned it all because he decided that being a terrible human being was the right thing to do.
We’ll be doing case studies on this for years to come.
A win for women at Jordan Brand
For the first time since 1998, Jordan Brand has created something specifically for women.
Jordan announced the launch of its new “Heir Series,” which is a line created specifically for women. The line’s first shoe? The Heir Jordan.
A look:
It’s a model built specifically for Jordan’s female consumer base at an accessible price point.
It’s the cheapest sneaker on Jordan Brand’s roster with a retail price of $110 — a full $15 cheaper than the Tatum 3.
It’s the lowest-cut model Jordan Brand has to offer.
It was built specifically for women — this is not a unisex sneaker. Kiki Rice and Kiyomi Miller helped design and test it.
My take: This is fantastic news. It’s good to see Jordan Brand continuing to invest in women. At this moment when women’s sports are growing rapidly and excitement is at a fever pitch, the timing here couldn’t be better for Jordan Brand.
I only wish it hadn’t taken so long for us to get back here again.
The last women’s specific shoe Jordan Brand offered was 1998’s Jordan Women’s model, coming shortly after the launch of the WNBA.
To be clear: This isn’t me saying that Jordan Brand hasn’t supported women’s sports. It’s built a strong roster of WNBA talent over the last few years. It made Kiki Rice its first NIL athlete and also built the Jordan Brand Women’s Collective.
But, like many other brands out there, Jordan Brand is playing a bit of catch-up here when it comes to the needs of its female audience in the performance hoops space. This is a great start, but more is needed.
What’s next? A female athlete with a Jordan Brand signature shoe. Make it happen, JB.
Is this weird to anyone else?
Maybe being a little too nitpicky here with this New Balance ad for Shohei Ohtani following the Dodgers’ World Series win.
Why is the Nike logo on Ohtani’s jersey more prominent than the New Balance logo in the bottom corner of this social ad.
Details: I saw this on Twitter following the World Series.
Ohtani is a New Balance athlete, but Nike manufactures Major League Baseball’s jerseys. That’s why you’ve got the swoosh on the jersey in this picture.
Yes, but: There are ways around it! Airbrush the swoosh out. If that’s an issue, use a different picture. That’s what Under Armour did with Freddie Freeman and their ad looks great.
The bottom line: This feels lazy. I understand that baseball isn’t the biggest sport anymore and Ohtani might not be New Balance’s most important athlete. But, considering how we’ve seen New Balance market products before, we know the brand can do better than this.
A poll: What do y’all think? Am I being too harsh here or does this look bad?
Giving Wale his flowers
Big shoutout to Anthony Edwards and Adidas for giving Wale his flowers for being one of the first celebrities to put on the AE 1.
Edwards gave Wale a signed jersey at a Timberwolves game for showing him love. It was a great moment — one that we don’t see that often anymore.
WARNING: There is some NSFW language in the following video.
An NBA player kicking it with a rapper wearing their signature shoe? Nature is definitely healing. It must be 1995 again.
A quick shoutout: Wale wasn’t really the first to rock the AE 1 — that was K.O. from ATATF.
But I do think it’s pretty cool that the love is there, regardless.
Sorry, gang.
No TKWW today. My apologies. I had a family emergency on Thursday and lost track of time. I’ll get us going back again next week.
In the meantime, I thoroughly enjoyed this Nike piece from Corteiz. Clint really knows the culture, man.
This is a riff on the Basketball Freestyle commercial from 2001 — one of the best commercials ever.
I thought y’all would enjoy that.
Thanks so much for rocking with me today! Appreciate you. Hope you all have a fantastic weekend.
If you have any questions, comments or concerns, hit me up at mikedsykes@gmail.com or shoot me a message here via Substack.
Peace and love. Be safe, be easy, be kind. We out.
-Sykes 💯