The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 286 — Can't let Ye go 🤦🏾♂️
Adidas is reportedly back in bed with Kanye and, uh, it's not a good look
Gooooood morning, folks. Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for rocking with me on this fine Friday morning.
Hope you’ve got a great weekend ahead of you. Happy early Mother’s Day to all the moms out there. We aren’t here without you. We love y’all. Y’all make the world such a beautiful place. Thank you.
Let’s jump in.
One last time
“You couldn’t live with your own failure. Where did that bring you? Back to me.” That line from Josh Brolin’s Thanos in Avengers: Endgame is so present in my mind today because it perfectly applies itself to this will-they-won’t-they situation between Kanye West and Adidas.
The news: Yeezy and Adidas are a thing again. Kind of.
Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden reportedly told shareholders that the company decided to sell the Yeezy sneakers and donate proceeds to charity, per the Washington Post.
It’s unclear what percentage of sales would actually go to charity or what charities would even be participating.
So it looks like all of those rumors about the brand bringing West back again weren’t exactly baseless after all.
To be clear: This isn’t Adidas bringing West back into the fold — it’s just the brand selling his product and paying him for it, as both sides agreed on in the original contract negotiation.
The brand isn’t re-upping its deal with West, who lost his partnership after dishing off multiple antisemitic tirades and featuring an anti-Black slogan on his clothing. But he is going to get that 15% royalty.
We must understand that this is a business decision — one almost certainly triggered by pressure from shareholders as the brand stared a $770 million operating loss in the face. When it comes to the court of public opinion vs. the opinion of the folks who write the checks, the money will always win out. So it’s reasonable that Adidas would come to this conclusion.
But, man, does it suck.
Let’s be real: This is beyond disappointing. Because it’s putting a ton of money back into the pocket of someone who continues to spread hate in Kanye West. And it just feels like if Adidas attacked this with a bit more creativity and courage, this could’ve all been avoided.
There were multiple options on the table for Adidas. None of them were great, obviously, but when you cut someone like Kanye you should expect a loss.
It’s hard to anticipate this stuff, obviously. But it’s not like the relationship between West and Adidas was peachy keen before October. The split had been brewing for years and Adidas still wasn’t ready.
I understand not wanting to destroy the sneakers. That’s fine and fair. But how is there no talk of upcycling here? What would’ve been wrong with donating? The other options just all seem more appealing than this.
At the end of it all, it’s clear that maximizing profit was still — and always — the priority here. Adidas had to find a way to fill its own gaps. That’s not shocking. It’s why Adidas is the big business that it is. Morality doesn’t move the bottom line.
It’ll be interesting to see the long-term implications from this. Is this something people are going to care about? There are lots of folks out there who don’t rock with Kanye anymore. And with Adidas putting money in his pockets again, the brand risks those same folks not rocking with it as well. Only time will tell how that plays out.
Finally: At least now we can all just move on. That Yeezy-less future is coming fast for Adidas and the brand just bought itself a bit more time to figure things out.
Please don’t screw this up.
Tom Sachs finally apologizes
Well, it took a couple months to get here, but Tom Sachs has finally issued an apology for his abhorrent behavior and toxic workspace.
Sachs issued a public, handwritten apology and posted it on social media.
These past few months have been a time of overdue reflection. It’s been painful but vital. I deeply regret that anyone, ever, felt less than supported, safe, and fulfilled within my studio. But it’s clear that some people did.
What happened: Tom Sachs has been in the headlines for all of the wrong reasons since February. It’s everything ranging from a toxic work environment, sexual harassment claims and even Nazi propaganda being out in the open within his studio. Truly terrible stuff.
Through it all, it felt like Sachs offered up explanations for his behavior instead of just straight up apologizing for it.
For example, Sachs explained the Swastika taped over his Red Cross first-aid kit as an effort to “subvert and reclaim this painful part of Jewish history.” Which, like, I guess?
It was just strange stuff. But now, I suppose, we finally have a full-fledged apology.
But…it’s hard for lots of folks out there to take it too seriously — mostly because it took so long to get it. It didn’t happen until Sachs lost his Nike deal.
In the days following reports that Nike planned to continue with Sachs and push out his Mars Yard 3.0, the brand announced that it would not move forward with the artist. Then we got our apology.
So that’s that on that. It’s quite a shame that things had to end this way between Sachs and Nike — the Mars Yard series was incredible and the General Purpose Shoe was one of the best sneakers of 2022.
But this sort of thing isn’t OK. Nobody is above the requirement of just being a decent human being. Somewhere along the way, Sachs forgot that. Now he’s paying for it.
Under Armour drops out of school — again
The butterfly effect from the financial stress Under Armour has been in over the last few years is not quite done reverberating through the business.
What happened: Under Armour’s exclusive negotiating window to extend its deal with Notre Dame University has closed, according to Sports Illustrated, meaning the brand will soon be free to go elsewhere.
The backdrop: Back in 2014 Under Armour and Notre Dame made a bit of history by signing a 10-year, $90 million apparel deal. At the time, that was the most lucrative sports apparel contract ever.
Plot twist: That’s the exact sort of big bet Under Armour has spent the last few years trying to get from up under.
The brand has severed ties with several collegiate schools over the last few years including its monstrous 15-year, $280 million deal with UCLA that it had to settle in court to be released from.
Other schools include Boston College, California, Hawai’i and Cincinnati. Notre Dame is now part of that list.
The mass bailout from Under Armour came as a result of the brand’s financial struggles. Though things are on the up and up now, the brand had massive drops in sales following 2020 and was even dinged by the SEC for improperly reported financials back in 2021.
Why this is a huge deal: Notre Dame is one of college sports’ biggest brands. It’s a college football blue blood. Losses aside, letting this brand walk away is a huge loss — especially considering it will fall into the lap of a competitor like Jordan Brand or Nike.
It only puts that much more pressure on UA’s influencer brands like the Curry Brand and Project Rock to do well. So far so good in 2023.
The coolest NIL deal I’ve seen
We’ve seen a lot of cool name, image and likeness deals come across headlines online over the last couple years, but I’m not sure I’ve seen one cooler than this one.
The news: Four students from the Galen College of Nursing are getting NIL deals from Saucony, per Footwear News.
For the inaugural edition of this initiative, Saucony is offering NIL sponsorships to four of Galen’s top nursing students, including Lauren Lowe and Sarah Sangha, from the two-year Associate Degree in Nursing program; and Ashley Lutes and Brianna Nelly from the three-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing program.
What they get: The students are receiving Saucony’s Triumph 20 and the Endorphin Shift 3 as well as compensation for actually being part of the program.
The big picture: This is awesome stuff, man. It’s the creativity I absolutely love to see in NIL deals.
Typically, we’re only seeing these sorts of deals go to athletes. But any college student is eligible for this sort of thing.
Saucony thought outside of the box here for an audience in nursing that runs deep with the brand. It’s truly brilliant stuff.
This is how a brand scores points with niche audiences that show it love. Saucony is showing some love back here. Other brands should take note.
#TheKicksWeWear
Y’ALL KNOW THE VIBRATIONS!
First of all, gotta shout out the Kicks Fam for an absolute blast of a weekend in NYC. We had a ball and took lots of sneaker pics. Here’s a whole lotta heat to kick us off.
The homie Public came through with the Every Game Air Ships and these joints are FANTASTIC, y’all. WOW. Beautiful sneaker.
Then the homie Jasmine popped out in the Off-White Blazers and this one is one of Virgil’s more slept on pairs. They are HEATERS.
The homie Joe came through with the Wizards 3s and Y’ALL GONNA PUT SOME RESPECT ON WIZARDS JORDAN’S NAME.
Then the homie Phil came through with this absolute princess who closed us out with the new Spiderman joints for her birthday. This is AMAZING. HBD to this princess!
Y’ALL SMOKED IT! Somebody tell Elon to let me embed tweets again. You can check out the rest of this amazing thread here.
Thank you so much for rocking with me today, fam. Appreciate y’all! Have an incredible weekend. Show love.
Let’s chat again on Monday. Til then, peace and love. Be easy, be safe, be kind. And we out.
-Sykes💯