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Last night, images were shared by Von Miller of his new Yeezy 750 cleats that he wore on the field for part of the first game of the new NFL season. The internet and social media went wild with thousands of shares, retweets, and comments about the first ever Yeezy cleats.
On virtually every sneaker site, most of the sports outlets, and a healthy number of lifestyle blogs had articles about the shoes by night’s end. The news of the cleats was also in several roundups on social media including Twitter Moments and Facebook Trends.
But what does this all mean? Kanye West and the Yeezy brand is hot.
Kanye West and the Yeezy brand is hot – very hot. Not only is it hot with popularity amongst the core fans and followers of Kanye, but yet again, we have a moment of proof to illustrate the mainstream appeal and influence of Kanye West.
Something we are also witnessing is another movement in the footwear business – the rise of the cleathead. Over the past ten years, we have covered many special PEs of cleats made for elite athletes, but there is an ever growing culture and community of athletes from the high school level and upward who are as passionate about their limited edition cleats as sneakers are about their latest limited grab from a boutique.
Clearly, and once again, Adidas seems to get it. It was only a couple of days ago that they unveiled their latest advertisement that celebrates the artist in the athlete titled “Sport Needs Creators.” Looking at more than just the raw performance of the player, Adidas looks to celebrate the individuality and creative side of every person who plays in their products.
This new approach to performance blending the creative side with the athlete is what separates Adidas as a brand from the rest of the pack. And with a lead figure in Kanye West that embodies the meaning of the word creativity, the brand has very strong and credible roots in this message.
How far can Kanye’s influence reach? That is yet to be determined. But you can bet that few Ye-sayers could have even pictured this emphatic of a response as we have seen over the past 12 hours with Yeezy football cleats.
