Kanye West's sneaker designs may seem as ubiquitous as ever, but Adidas' latest earnings report shows that Yeezy sales are actually down from this time last year—although it's not as alarming as it may sound on paper.
The German brand announced its Q3 earnings today from Berlin, with Reuters and other outlets reporting that a slowdown in Yeezy sales hampered the brand's growth. While that may be true to an extent, there's actually a good reason for the drop in numbers.
As overall third quarter sales outperformed analyst predictions and rose six percent to 6.41 billion euros ($7.10 billion), the brand's footwear sales increased by just one percent, a figure that reporters are connecting to a decrease in West's sales compared to a "major Yeezy launch last year."
The launch in question would presumably be the "Cream White" Yeezy Boost 350 V2 restock, a drop which was rumored to include millions of pairs and went down as what the brand later described as the biggest digital release. There wasn't a Yeezy drop of that magnitude this year, so it's not surprising that sales figures are down in comparison.
E-commerce sales were also noticeably lower in Q3 than Q2, dropping from 37 percent to 14 percent, although there isn't a specific Yeezy launch singled out for this decrease.
CEO Kasper Rorsted told reporters that the brand had intentionally limited its Yeezy production this year in order to keep their exclusivity intact.
