Fashion
How Kanye West made Yeezy’s brand a success
Oct
Kanye West took to Twitter to support the president in Trump style, posting a photo of herself wearing a “Make America Great Again” baseball cap and paying homage to Yeezy’s sneaker and apparel brand. I. In this article, we join Storepc to explore how Kanye West made the Yeezy brand a success.
Yeezy, a brand that sells apparel and sneakers in partnership with Adidas, is facing an online backlash, with customers threatening to burn or sell their Yeezy sneakers, and celebrities including Rihanna and Drake are said to have stopped following Wes on Twitter special. West’s statement about his brand’s success also gained traction after he announced that his brand was on track to “reach $1 billion” this year and would employ 160 people.
“This is the second fastest growing company in history,” West wrote. “It’s a unicorn that’s on its way to invincibility,” he said, using Silicon Valley buzzwords to describe a business worth over $1 billion and over $10 billion. West followed up with a series of tweets claiming that he is the “highest earner in footwear right now” and makes more money from footwear than Michael Jordan. Then he tweeted: “There’s a lot of fake news, so I just want to tell you the truth. Yeezy is going to be the biggest clothing company in human history.”
Yeezy’s true value is difficult to determine
Since the company doesn’t release sales figures and hasn’t been spun off by Adidas, it’s nearly impossible to determine whether his claims are true. Adidas won’t provide any specific financial details about Yeezy. GQ’s Cam Wolf spoke with Cowen, a retail analyst who runs Adidas, to find out if any of West’s claims are true. “I have a hard time believing that this brand has generated over $1 billion in sales,” Kernan told GQ.
Wolf explained that Yeezy would need annual sales of $3 billion to hit that figure, which is almost 8 percent of Adidas’ global business. It’s also unlikely that West will earn more at Nike than Michael Jordan, according to Kernan.
Yeezy is an influential sneaker brand
These potentially exaggerated claims don’t detract from the brand’s success. This week, it was ranked No. 9 on a list of “Hottest Brands” created by Business of Fashion and fashion search platform Lyst. “Street fashion industry insiders believe the brand can enter the top 3 hottest brands by the end of the year,” the index noted.
“Sneakers remain the most popular item globally. This season’s Yeezy Blush 500 and Yeezy Boost 700 were the most popular styles,” said Katy Lubin, Lyst’s director of communications. In the first quarter of 2018, Katy Lubin, communications director, said Lyst.
West is also credited with paving the way for some major trends in the sneaker industry. GQ considers the Yeezy Boost 350 shoe, first released in 2015, to be the most influential sneaker of 2016, and claims that smaller brands like Allbirds seem to have influenced them as well.
Kanye is a marketing genius
According to Lyst, in the week following Yeezy’s appearance, the hype of its social media activity prompted a 45% spike in search demand for Yeezy on its platform compared to the previous week. “The Yeezy team is committed to culture — art as well as pop music — and isn’t afraid to try these rules in their marketing efforts,” said Moving Image & Content founder Quynh Mai.
This direct-to-consumer advertising strategy not only saves money, but is also a way to bring his products to the masses. “Yeezy’s approach to marketing is effective because it balances exclusivity (art, celebrity) and mass (Instagram, movies). His campaign is artistic expression. Creative art, while his distribution strategy is mass,” Mai said.
This is an introductory article on how Kanye West made the Yeezy brand a success. Stay tuned to Storepc for the latest sneaker news.
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