The Kanye Backlash Is Creating a Market Boom For His Yeezy Sneakers

When Adidas announced on October 25th that the company would “stop the adidas Yeezy business with immediate effect,” there were plenty of questions as to what might come of the Yeezy resale market.

One reddit user asked: “Should I buy 30k worth of Yeezys to hold and resell?”

Another person commented, “I got 58 pairs of Yeezy’s and tons of other shoes. I used to have 100 pairs but I sell and trade shoes on the regular. I plan on holding on to these to see what happens. I don’t expect anything drastic to happen anytime soon, most likely a hype train tons of people are going to be looking for them soon to flip.”

Nearly a week after adidas’s announcement, we appear to have our answer. According to data available on StockX, a streetwear reselling site, prices for Yeezy’s rose by 20% on its site in the immediate aftermath of the controversies.

Resellers, according to Orange County-based streetwear collective 76kicks founder Kenny Almazan “are actually profiting at this moment due to sneaker head and reseller cultures viewing the product as limited and never coming back, people are buying up stock wherever they can (via reseller platforms like Whatnot and GOAT).”

He adds that while “a number of business owners are hating on Kanye for his behavior, at the end of the day, they still have to pay their bills.”

To that end, on Whatnot, customers are tuning into sneaker resellers’ live streams to find out if they can get their hands on a good deal on a pair of Yeezys.

Other reselling platforms like Depop and Poshmark are reselling Yeezy slides and shoes above retail or double, depending on the style and size.

“Another factor that is contributing to the growth of sales on these platforms is due to adidas instructing local boutiques and department stores (Footlocker, Finish line, etc.) to pull Yeezy products off the shelves, making the product impossible to buy unless you buy it on reselling platforms,” says Almazan.

But not every sneakerhead is convinced the hype around secondhand Yeezy’s will last.

“I wore adidas because of Ye I just bought a lot of adidas but I will burn them,” said one reddit user. Another commented that no one will want to be seen wearing Yeezy’s because of the negative association it has with West. Adding that, “Kanye is self destructing right now and will more than likely cause more damage to his rep and image. I would not invest in anything associated to him.”

For his part, Almazan says that in spite of all the controversy, people won’t stop wearing Yeezys anytime soon. Adding that, “To be honest, I think the older sneakerheads would stop, but the younger crowd will still rock them because Kanye mainly attracts a younger age group.”