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No matter how stubbornly some out-of-touch industry analysts currently on the “consulting” payroll of adidas’ competitors try and refute his influence, Kanye West can apparently wear a random shoe, and then people will buy them.
Such was the case this week, after Ye decided to perform “ALL DAY” at the Bulls / Cavs game during a timeout break at the United Center this past Sunday. As per usual, West was spotted in an overdose of designer goods: a $3,550 Haider Ackermann bomber jacket, $1,945 Balenciaga leather shirt, $570 ripped Saint Laurent jeans, a gold Apple Watch, and since this is a sneaker blog, the $160 adidas Energy Boost ESM in white.
I made sure to check adidas.com just after his brief performance, and there were indeed multiple sizes of the white Energy Boost ESM available online. Not even 3 days later, they’re fully sold out.
Not for a second is that a coincidence.
On Monday, adidas CEO Herbert Hainer reported to investors on an earnings call that Kanye, along with Pharrell, helped to “drive an aggressive 29% sales increase at adidas Originals.”
While some might mistakenly only give Kanye official sales credit for products bearing the “Yeezy” name, there’s this thing called influence, and it stretches to other categories within the brand, other silos and other models, like even an admittedly random Energy Boost ESM in all white.
All 17 of the reviews written on the model’s product page are running related to this point, and now we can all look forward to seeing the shoe styled on Instagram by hypebeasts now that the Energy Boost ESM is reaching a new audience.
