NPD Says 50 Cent Was More Influential In Sneakers Than Kanye West, Adidas Marketshare Dropped

[Higher Tech]

They appeal to two different markets. One appeals to nikkas without taste and prolly still wear jerseys in every day situations. One appeals to sneakerheads, fashionheads, and the higher brand market.

What similarities do these rappers even have overall anyway? From Graduation vs Curtis on, Kanye has been superior to 50 in every way except being a dikk and making headphones that no one buys

They both marketed shoes. Thats it. You keep bringing up cultural influence. I'm not arguing that at all. The only thing that matters in THIS argument is dollars generated. That's all they're talking about.

 

[L. Deezy]

I'm agreeing with you to an extent. I'm not saying every release back then had people camping but a few did. For the majority of the time you could go to the store anytime after release day and grab a pair.

Now you agreeing to what Ive basically said? After allll that?

Yall nyggas.. I swear to gawd

 

[L. Deezy]

Retro shyt been dropping since forever,what are you talking about?

Nygga, I know that.. the market for them then, aint how it is now.. how many times I gotta say this?

 

[Edub]

So 9000 that made 250k for Addias is better than 3.8 million sold for Reebok now?

This is business not hype, as Matt Powell says. If Kanye's sneakers are so hot why won't they test a mass market sneaker?

Kanye isn't making much from these sneakers as of yet, That could change but it is what it is.

Both are successes but in different ways. If Adidas aim is to have a high dollar exclusive luxury shoe that fetches luxury end clientele then they may have succeeded with the yeezy...they can certainly manipulate that product line with marketing for a future run off product or generate a broader high end market for future editions of the shoe. Rich Europeans love the shoe honestly. The 50 deal with reebok was a quick buck success for them too...but with no longevity...and once your product hits tj maxx you've probably spent more on producing and shipping the shoe than what you can make back profit wise in a retailer like that...so I question if that was a success at all for Reebok.

 

[Edub]

I think this guy is missing the point that Kanye actually designs the shoe...unlike 50 and Jay. Because Ye designs the shoe that has more to do with its value...not so much it's limited quantities(but it certainly helps)...

50 and Jay weren't crying about not being able to design clothes...Ye really wanted hands on. That's the whole point of the shoes success and this guy clearly misses that. He just sees black entertainers names in conjunction with shoe brands and figures it's all the same. He's misinformed and probably a little unconsciously racist

 

[david yow's jeans]

seems like two arguments being had in here (sales vs influence). reading the article, dude points out:

Recent history would argue against that. A decade ago, Reebok tried to commercialize their relationships with artists Jay-Z and 50 Cent, two very important artists of the time. I was in the Villa store on N. Broad in Philly for the first S. Carter drop (Shawn Carter is Jay-Z’s real name). The shoes sold out very quickly. The atmosphere was electric.

Reebok decided to try to build on that small success, by making many more pairs and opening up to a much broader distribution. The next, slightly larger, delivery did very well, so Reebok ramped up production even more. At the same time they made the G-Unit shoe for 50 Cent, again trying to commercialize the relationship.

Both mass market efforts failed miserably. There simply was not enough of a market for the amount of pairs manufactured. Markdowns were taken, orders cancelled and the bulk of the shoes were liquidated through off price retailers. No further shoes were released and the relationships ended.

make sense to me, since there doesn't appear to be anything special about the design or manufacture of either shoe. kanye and adidas are obviously aiming for something different; stature. while i think kanye's influence in the area of fashion is a bit overestimated the dude is known for fashion much more than anyone from g-unit or jay-z (who aren't even known for fashion at all?). the msrp is also way higher than the jay-z shoes, even accounting for inflation. they aren't even targeting the same demo.

strange comparison. that's like asking the oslen twins to go back to walmart and drop the row for the sake of commercial success and product reach. they don't even want that, so why would they?

 

[WSFGDan]

I think this guy is missing the point that Kanye actually designs the shoe...unlike 50 and Jay. Because Ye designs the shoe that has more to do with its value...not so much it's limited quantities(but it certainly helps)...

50 and Jay weren't crying about not being able to design clothes...Ye really wanted hands on. That's the whole point of the shoes success and this guy clearly misses that. He just sees black entertainers names in conjunction with shoe brands and figures it's all the same. He's misinformed and probably a little unconsciously racist

if you read his tweets he says Kanye didn't even design his sneakers....

 

[bouncy]

if you read his tweets he says Kanye didn't even design his sneakers....

That's what he says. It could have been a collaboration or maybe in the deal someone in the circle took the credit, as part of the deal. IDK, but, I doubt this guy knows, he isn't in the circle to see how it works. He is just repeating his opinions, and what he was told. I don't take his word as law.

 

[Monoblock]

Kanye doesn't design anything. Out of his own mouth.

http://www.latimes.com/fashion/la-ig-kanye-west-designer-20150308-story.html

and

http://www.thecoli.com/posts/13025101/

 

[bouncy]

Kanye doesn't design anything. Out of his own mouth.

http://www.latimes.com/fashion/la-ig-kanye-west-designer-20150308-story.html

and

http://www.thecoli.com/posts/13025101/

Just like I thought, he is just reading or hearing what others say, and trying to downplay Kanyes role.

I read both articles, and it just says he didn't design the shoes, and clothes. That doesn't mean he didn't "make" the products. Its the same as a music producer who doesn't play any instruments, but produces the record by telling the musicians what he wants. James Brown did this, and we all know how great his music was. It changed the game, and no one would say he didn't produce the songs. In this case the designer(who has other people as well, according to the article) listened to what Kanye wanted, and made a product. He would then go back to Kanye to see if he is happy with the product. Most likely Kanye changed different things, and eventually approved the product. He didn't "design" the shoes but, he did create them but cause he thought of the idea, and he refined the product to where the consumer likes it, and willing to pay high end money for it. So to me, Kanye plays a very big part in the process. He isn't just a figurehead like corporations want him to be.

After reading those articles, I really understand why Kanye was mad in the sway, and that English guy, interviews when he was saying these designers are fronting on him, as well as corporations. Its because they are probably jealous that he is the man in music, and now he makes quality clothing for a high price. That lane is never given to blacks let alone, rappers. They want him to stay in the music lane. He obviously has a talent with clothes. Its just pure hate from what I see

 

[The Devil's Advocate]

that was dude's main point; that hype don't mean shyt, look at op.

Because these shoes are limited in availability, they are often in high demand and can claim high multiples in re-sale price on the Internet. Because these limited shoes are in high demand, there is often a mistaken assumption that they could or would sell well in commercial quantities.

Recent history would argue against that. A decade ago, Reebok tried to commercialize their relationships with artists Jay-Z and 50 Cent, two very important artists of the time. I was in the Villa store on N. Broad in Philly for the first S. Carter drop (Shawn Carter is Jay-Z’s real name). The shoes sold out very quickly. The atmosphere was electric.

Reebok decided to try to build on that small success, by making many more pairs and opening up to a much broader distribution. The next, slightly larger, delivery did very well, so Reebok ramped up production even more. At the same time they made the G-Unit shoe for 50 Cent, again trying to commercialize the relationship.

Both mass market efforts failed miserably. There simply was not enough of a market for the amount of pairs manufactured. Markdowns were taken, orders cancelled and the bulk of the shoes were liquidated through off price retailers. No further shoes were released and the relationships ended.
Similarly the Pharrell Williams/ Reebok “Ice Cream” collaboration went down in flames. The Pharrell/Palladium deal never got off the ground. I cannot recall a single celebrity collaboration has been commercially meaningful at scale.

The lesson here is that limited means limited. Just because a shoe blows out at retail on a small number of pairs does not guarantee broad commercial success, regardless of how popular the artist may be and how commercially successful they are. High resale value is not an indicator of broad commercial success.

people don't want to hear that tho... people don't want to hear that we are less than 20% of the population... people don't want to hear how rap is a niche market... on how on a worldwide scale, it ain't worth shyt...

just cause they slap "famous rapper A" on the side, doesn't mean shyt to 80% of the world... not anywhere close to "athlete A" selling 50 million shoes and shyt

 

[TrifeGod]

random but


Give those pants back before them young money nikkas come beefin

 

[The Devil's Advocate]

marketing to the everyman is smart for hip hop. at least 50 kept it urban and close to something you'd think of as "hip hop gear". these rappers obsession with european fashion needs to end a lot brehs cant relate to that even if they can afford it. idk why we're shytting on trends we created these days in favor of some runway stuff. the whole thing is

this is trash

you could literally put these ugly ass sneakers in ANY store... for ANY price... and nobody would buy them

throw in "kanye made these" and they sell for THOUSANDS


and that's why they'll NEVER see a big release... that's why none of them do... cause at the end of the day, they just aren't good enough


think of how many shoes come out... how hard it really is to make a "best seller" shoe.. there's plenty of stars out there... how many have GREAT shoes? again... it's business

 

[david yow's jeans]

actually now that I think of this it's weird that he skips by the success of adidas + stella mccartney which is in its 10th year of production. that seems much more similar in goal than reebok's jay-z deal.

 

[Edub]

if you read his tweets he says Kanye didn't even design his sneakers....

Exactly...that's where he is misinformed...I'm not saying Kanye is playing Marc Jacobs over at Adidas...but he was definately a creative handler of the shoe...as a matter of fact they let him design a whole workout line in conjunction with the shoe