Kanye West’s Adidas Line

Just a few days ago, Kanye West stood up at Oxford and gave the speech of his lifetime—or that week—when he called out the absurdly unattainable prices of luxury goods. “Clothing should be like food,” Ye said. “There should never be a $5,000 sweater. You know what should cost $5,000? A car should be $5,000. And you know who should work on the car? The people that work on the $500,000 cars.” The list of similar quotes goes on. 

Fast forward to today, when the first reports of the price points of Kanye’s Adidas line have surfaced—and sadly, it doesn’t seem they’ll be bridging the gap between high-end pieces and fast fashion. If you thought Kanye’s A.P.C. collab was expensive, with its $90 plain t-shirt, you might be wishing for those tags if these prices end up being real. 

According to Highsnobiety who spoke with an unidentified source that shared the “official” prices, the Ye x Adidas knitwear is expected to range from $880 to $1650. That’s over twice as much as Kanye’s $340 airport sweater for A.P.C. 

By contrast, the hoodies and sweatshirts would be almost a bargain at around $430. Still, that’s about four times the price of any track jacket you’d find in Jeremy Scott, Rita Ora, or Pharrell‘s collabs with Adidas. 

Outerwear will always hurt your wallet the most, but Highsnobiety reports prices that span from $1760 to $3850. 

And if their source is to be believed, those hoping to pick up accessories like the canvas backpack, leather backpack, or leather bag, should start saving up now as they might end up having to drop $500, $700, or $880 respectively on these items.

The shoes, on the other hand, seem to scan as the best buy with the low top “Yeezy 350 Boost” reportedly coming in at just under $210. The snow boot, meanwhile, would be a little more than twice as much at $500.

So, what could be making these pieces up to four times more expensive than every other Adidas collab? 

Likely fabric, since Kanye has been known to be such a perfectionist (also, given his special binder, he clearly takes his materials very seriously). There’s also the technology that the shoes are made with, pair that with unconventional cuts, advertising, marketing and promotion, the limited run, the salaries of the teams involved, and a host of other costs of business I’m probably missing. 

Does the pricing make Kanye a hypocrite? Not exactly. When Kanye went on The Breakfast Club recently, he explained that “At the start of a relationship, you ain’t gonna have all the control. It’s a marriage, and usually the first year of the situation is the toughest. And then, when you start to communicate, it could be powerful.”

Giving him the benefit of the doubt, it’s easy to imagine that if this line is successful, the next one should be more reasonably priced. And, if for some reason that isn’t the case: Maybe Gap would be into being the vehicle for Kanye’s Robin Hood approach to fashion?