Entertainment

What We Know About Kanye West's Retail Experiment with Adidas

"This partnership illustrates that anyone with a dream can dream without limitations."

Getty Images/Jonathan Leibsen

Kanye West’s endeavors in the fashion industry have bolstered his overall clout – by showcasing his versatility and willingness to dress like a depressed gym teacher. And Adidas clearly sees promise in West’s indomitable success: The German multinational corporation, which collaborated with West on the first three seasons of his Yeezy clothing line (the Yeezy Boost 740, and the Yeezy Boost 350) has announced it will extend the partnership with West for a new line of Yeezy-branded shoes, clothes, and accessories. Here’s everything we know about the upcoming serious of collaborations, aptly (if predictably) dubbed adidas + KANYE WEST.

The adidas + KANYE WEST line isn’t even close to available, but it’s already breaking records. According to a Vanity Fair article, the announcement marks the “most significant partnership ever created between an athletic brand and a non-athlete.” West has never been one to accept second best, and it looks like his line with Adidas, which will reportedly “redefine the future” and be run out of from Adidas’s Portland office, is guaranteed at least a few superlatives.

According to the Adidas PR machine, adidas + KANYE WEST is going to flesh out West’s ongoing collaboration with the major brand. The line will offer both sport and street options in an attempt to “extend beyond its current lifestyle focus” by introducing more “performance-intended design” for men and women. That means that adidas + KANYE WEST will boast activewear products and high- fashion garments. Let’s put that another way: Athleisure, athleisure, athleisure, health goth, athleisure, oversize t-shirts.

Lastly, the adidas + KANYE WEST partnership marks a departure from the runway and a foray into a more accessible market. The items will be for sale at Yeezy retail stores, which “will serve as distinct hubs for adidas and West-developed” products.

And that’s where all this gets interesting. The line is adidas + Kanye West and the stores will have Yeezy duds and the wording of the press release seems to indicate that both adidas and West will be selling other products in those stores. That’s NBD for adidas, which already has a significant number of retail outlets; but it’s significant for West, who may suddenly have the infrastructure to go straight to consumers with his always world-shattering ideas (or with Kim’s latest accessory). Thought it’s unclear at this point what non-collaboration Yeezy products might look like, it seems likely Kanye will roll some out.

Given how unpredictable he has become, it would be irresponsible to even hazard a guess as to what that may mean.

Not much else has been announced about the forthcoming collaboration between West and Adidas, but more details will surely surface in the near future, probably on West’s Twitter account.