How Sneaker Stores Handled the Problem of the adidas Yeezy Release

Bringing adidas Yeezys to the masses.

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by Brendan Dunne

Last weekend’s wider release of the adidas Yeezy was something of a burden for the retailers around the world who had stock. Sure it meant something for the stores' status to have the shoes, but it also meant that they had to figure out how to fairly distribute what would undoubtedly go down as one of the most anticipated shoes of the year while dealing with incredibly limited stock.

None of the stores from adidas' Consortium network that were allocated stock seem to have gotten more than pairs twelve total. These small runs meant the accounts holding pairs likely wouldn’t be making much money off the selling of them if they stuck with the $350 retail price.

Opting to sell the adidas Yeezy Boost online would almost guarantee a site crash, and likely some sort of exploit that disappears all of them before the proper retail release. SneakersNStuff in Sweden alluded to this in its rollout of the shoe, saying that “to try to release 12 pairs online, with literally 100,000 of you online all trying to complete the transaction at the same time, would only lead to server crashes and bot discussions.”

When the adidas Yeezy first released, the sneaker was an NYC-only affair, and the majority of the pairs available were distributed via the adidas Confirmed app. The platform allowed adidas to control the chaos of the hyped release, as people were able to win reservations from a mobile device, and then pick the shoes up at designated locations within a certain time window.

The approach worked, and adidas even won extra points when the brand had Kanye come through and hand out pairs himself. But when the shoes started showing up at additional (and more traditional) retailers in the following weeks, those stores grappled with how to best release the shoes.

The majority of shops carrying the Yeezy went the raffle route, with many sticking to in-store raffles in order to guarantee that their pairs at least went to locals. “We really wanted to make sure our customer had a chance for these,” said Steve Silver, co-founder of Xhibition, a sneaker boutique in Cleveland. “We did a raffle, it’s the fairest way to do it.”

When product this coveted comes up, there are inevitably attempts by customers to try to pay an exorbitant price up front in order to secure a pair. “$1,700 was the most,” said Derek Curry, owner of Sneaker Politics, a chain of boutiques in Louisiana, when asked how much customers had offered to pay for the sneakers. Curry batted down these requests and went the raffle route.

In his lengthy post on the adidas Yeezy, Erik Fagerlind, co-owner of Sneakersnstuff in Sweden, spoke of old acquaintances getting back in touch just for the sake of trying to get a pair off him. “I even had people I used to hang with that neglected to call me when I had my first and second son,” Fagerlind wrote, “that now called me to shoot the breeze, only to land on that they really wanted to get a pair of the Yeezys.”

Curry also says that he had people coming out of the woodwork looking to buy pairs. “Every famous person that we deal with asked for a pair, every athlete that we deal with asked for a pair,” Curry says. “Every kid that I’ve ever seen come through the store asked me for a pair. Don C asked me for a pair!”

Powerhouse boutique chain UNDFTD decided not to sell the sneakers at all. “Lines will be long, tensions will be high, and supplies will be low,” wrote the retailer on Instagram. “That’s why Undefeated is choosing not to sell a single pair of the 11 adidas Yeezy Boosts we have been allocated.”

Instead, UNDFTD launched a contest encouraging people to do something selfless in exchange for a free pair of the coveted sneakers. In exchange for an entry into a raffle, users could post an Instagram video of themselves “organizing for social justice, generating joy through random acts of kindness, or simply making someone else's dreams come true” with the hashtag #UNDEFEATEDSELFLESSACT. At the time of writing, the hashtag has over 1,000 entries and the shop has given away three of its total eleven pairs via the contest.

 

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Then there were retailers like Extra Butter in New York which didn’t get any adidas Yeezy stock, much to the dismay of its customers. The shop spent hours on social media explaining, in no uncertain terms, that pairs weren’t sold to employees or “out the back door” as it were – they just didn’t get any.

For what it’s worth, the adidas Yeezy’s wider release last weekend was without any of the violent incidents that can often arise from these sort of sneakers. There were, thankfully, no news reports of storefronts torn down or people getting stabbed over pairs.

“Everything went fine. We told the people who won to come by at 2 in the morning and grab them,” said Curry. “That way they don’t get harassed.” Silver said that the launch for the sneakers at Xhibition in Cleveland went smooth as well.

This lines up with Kanye’s original pleas ahead of the adidas Yeezy release that the shoe not be surrounded with the same tragedy as certain footwear has been in the past. “When I was growing up, kids got killed for Jordans,” Kanye said during an interview with Ryan Seacrest on Feb. 11. “I just wanna make sure we keep it safe, I’ve heard about people getting hurt over sneaker culture.” For now, Kanye’s got his wish.

Where he hasn’t gotten his wish is on the issue of the exclusivity of the shoes. West has repeatedly stated in interviews that he doesn’t want the shoes to be limited, and that the distribution has been adidas’ doing. He’s stated that “Eventually everyone who wants Yeezys will get them.” This part of his prophecy on the adidas Yeezy has yet to come true, but at least the shoe’s rollout so far has been without any of the violent events that have plagued hyped releases like this in recent years.