Making sense of art and design industries

“Adidas Yeezy Boost 700 V2 Static – CGI” by Alejandro Santell is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 

by gutt1997

The brand Yeezy has been produced and designed by the artist Kanye West in collaboration whit Adidas. Since it’s first released in 2013, Yeezy has gained enormous popularity and are today worth approximately 1 billion US dollars. The brand Yeezy is most known for there shoes but is also selling clothes and jackets to name a few.  To be able to get your hands on one of Yeezys product is very difficult and the demand is often bigger than the number of products sold on the market. It’s therefore common for Yeezy products to be resealed for even more money than they originally cost on the official sale on Adidas.

Whit the Yeezy brand Kanye are producing clothes and shoes, which has social and cultural relevancy world-wide. As mention earlier Yeezy has already gained 1 million dollars and are just getting bigger whit all the different shoes models and clothes produced every year.  The thing that separates Kanye as a Fashion designer from others, is his status as a worldwide musician combined whit his talent for fashion. Over the years Kanye has used his platform as a famous musician and celebrity in unique and unorthodox ways to promote his fashion. One example which undermines this point was in 2016 when Kanye decided to Promote his new fashion collection together whit his new album Life of Pablo in Madison square garden in New York. To be able to make the event more accessible Kanye decided to stream the event worldwide. 

As a result of Kanye’s perception as a music artist, the brand Yeezy has gained interest from both critics and fans since its first arrival in 2015.  As a result of yeezys collaboration whit Adidas, Yeezy is often referred to as the main competitor to the brand Jordan by Nike. Both Jordan and Yeezy are two different brands who are selling fashion clothes designed by superstars in collaboration whit two of the biggest brands in the world in terms of Nike and Adidas.  Other competitors to Yeezys are Supreme and off-white which both sells expensive clothes focused on streetwear as their design. 

In terms of characterizing Yeezys throw the different markets approach. Yeezys by Kanye belongs in the alternative art market. His fashion does not provide a non-profit approach to the art-market which is associated with art from the avant-guard art market. The specific reason why Yeesys belongs in the alternative market is a combination of low availability, high prices, demand and Kanye’s cultural and social status as a celebrity designer for the brand. Yeezys is focusing mainly on the commercial circuit, which means its focusing on the commercial aspect instead of cultural.

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Sources:

https://www.complex.com/sneakers/kanye-west-adidas-vs-air-jordans ( Written September 9, 2019, by Complex)

https://www.harpersbazaar.com.au/fashion/the-yeezy-effect-kanye-west-and-fashion-3680( published August 01, 2016 by Grace O’Neill )
https://melkoghonning.no/na-er-merket-hans-verdt-1-milliard-dollar/ ( Published July 13, 2019, by Caroline Krager)