PARIS, FRANCE - JANUARY 23: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY - For Non-Editorial use please seek approval from Fashion House) Ye attends the Kenzo Fall/Winter 2022/2023 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on January 23, 2022 in Paris, France. (Photo by Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
Kanye West’s Yeezy has unveiled its first shoe since parting with Adidas. And it looks like Ye has taken comfort in the footwear market to a new level.
The shoe, labeled as the YZY POD, features a minimalist, streamlined design and comes in three sizes. The company brands it as “the foldable future of footwear.”
Now, roommates, the shoe can easily be mistaken for a knee-high sock. It consists of a stretchy knit material and a thin rubber sole to provide some cushion. As the name already suggests, sock shoes integrate the comfort and snug fit of socks with the functionality and durability of shoes, per TODAY.
The YZY POD shoes were made available for pre-order on Friday (December 15), though it’s still unclear when they will get an official release date. Perhaps even more intriguing than the design itself is Yeezy’s retail price, $200.
And, as expected, it wasn’t long before social media weighed in with their opinions, as some fans considered the shoe highly overpriced while others said they were treating themselves to a pair for Christmas.
“Really just spent $668 on 2 pairs of sock shoes,” one Twitter user wrote. “Only Yeezy would make me do it.”
As the reactions kept pouring in, one person tweeted, “Yeezy tripping ain’t nobody paying 200 for no socks.” Another fan, clearly unfazed by the price, continued, “We buying the Yeezy socks for Christmas.”
“I called this like 2 years ago,” a fourth person tweeted. “When pics of him wearing the prototypes came out, and people were joking, ‘WHY IS HE WEARING SOCKS!? These gonna be the next Yeezy. Looks dope. Bet it feels much better than most shoes too.”
According to TMZ, West had filed for the trademark in his bid to expand the Yeezy brand in May, so it would seem like the YZY POD is only the beginning for Ye and his upcoming footwear releases.
It appears Kanye West has officially released the Yeezy Pods on Thursday, December 28.
Adidas decided to part ways with West in October 2022, ending its partnership with the Yeezy brand.
The announcement came after West made a series of antisemitic remarks during several interviews, sparking severe backlash from the Jewish community.
The fashion industry quickly condemned West’s comments that same month, with Anna Wintour and Vogue announcing that they had no intention of working with the rapper again, per Page Six. Balenciaga followed suit. So did GAP. They reported that the company was stopping production of Yeezy products and any further payments to West.
It seemed like it was only a matter of time before Adidas would make its announcement. The father of four signed the 10-year deal in 2020, with annual sales initially expected to reach $1 billion in sales, according to The New York Times. The German sportswear company announced its “decision to terminate the partnership with Ye immediately” on October 25.
The move represented a significant downside for Adidas, who predicted a $771 million loss by the end of 2023, per Forbes. The company still had millions of dollars worth of Yeezy sneakers in stock, which they could no longer sell following the abrupt move to end its working relationship with Ye. That changed in June of this year.
Adidas’ chief executive Bjorn Gulden said in a statement in May, “the loss of Yeezy [is], of course, hurting us,” and that there had been a 20 percent sales decline in North America alone. By August, the company announced it had decided to sell a portion of its Yeezy stock and donate the money to charities and anti-hate groups.
“We will continue to carefully sell off more of the existing Yeezy inventory,” Gulden said, as quoted by TIME. “This is much better than destroying and writing off the inventory and allows us to make substantial donations to organizations like the Anti-Defamation League, the Philonise & Keeta Floyd Institute for Social Change, and Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism.”
