Maybe this all started on filming of “Anchorman 2″? Image: IFC, Zimbio
So the sneaker world (well, at least the vocal ones on the internet) is up in arms over the huge news that Kanye West has officially (and by “officially”, I mean adidas has actually acknowledged it and it’s not just ‘Ye being ‘Ye) signed with adidas and that Drake has signed with Jordan Brand. Set aside the irony of people who wear their kicks solely for style complaining about artists signing with basketball shoe makers, we are going to be in for a very interesting next few months with Yeezy and Drizzy competing (and if you don’t think these two are going to be tied together at the shoelace now that they’re high profile members of sneaker brands, you’re kidding yourselves) for mindshare in the community.
Save for Jay Z (too old for this nonsense) and Kendrick Lamar (needs a few more reps to enter the discussion), no two rappers at the moment resonate more in the public eye than Kanye West and Drake. Their albums are events, their lyrics are gospel to their fans and their shows are akin to spectacles. You might not consider them the best in the game today, but they are at the peak of their relevance to the people and that in many ways is more important than skill on the mic (yes, that’s pretty depressing).
As of right now, the only concrete bits of info we have is that Kanye’s first foray with the three stripes will drop next year while Drake has a few pairs of “OVO” Air Jordans that hypebeasts are salivating over. So let’s play the speculation game (because why not?) and share with you our 10 Reasons The Kanye West and Drake Sneaker Deals Are Going To Be Fun To Watch.
10. Sneakerheads in their emotions
Image: Hypebeast
Some people loved the Kanye West-Nike connection while others hated it. Those on the latter side argued that West had no place being a “Nike guy” and were glad when he left for adidas. Now those same sneakerheads are crying over Drake jumping over to the Jumpman. Call it sneaker schadenfreude, but nothing makes me happier than the #JDF getting all righteous for the wrong reasons.
Look, Kanye wasn’t right when he said that only he and Don C made wearing retros cool, but he’s not entirely wrong either. Since the days of Run DMC all the way up to 2 Chainz (yeah, I cringed too when I wrote that), rappers and sneakers have been linked in one way or another. Collaborations like the Yeezy and whatever is coming from Drake and Jordan Brand is just evolution of that relationship. But if you want to continue to think this is a dark day for sneakers, go ahead by all means. I think we all have more critical things in the sneaker world to worry about.
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Read the rest of 10 Reasons the Kanye West and Drake sneaker deals are going to be fun to watch (1,012 words)
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Post tags: Drake, Kanye West
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