By now, you already know the hype surrounding the New Years Eve track Kanye West dropped aimed at Nike and Jordan Brand. You’ve probably scrolled through hundreds of comments on the forums and read numerous articles about it. Here’s another one, I’ll keep it brief.
So far, Matt Welty from Complex has put things in perspective the best. Kanye West is barely a blip on the radar of Nike and Jordan Brand as far as sales go. As a fan of his work, it disappoints to see such a legendary artist make statements in a diss track that are just plain wrong and easy to disprove.
“Yeezy Yeezy Yeezy Yeezy just jumped over Jumpman, If Nike ain’t have Drizzy man they would have nothin’,if Nike ain’t have Don C then they would have nothin'”
As Welty explained “this is the furthest thing from the truth, despite what Kanye or Twitter might say.”
Based off U.S. market share for footwear alone (for which Nike owns 48% and Adidas just 9%) you can clearly see that what Kanye has conjured up in his mind is nothing more than a fairytale. While both adidas and Kanye have come off a great 2015 campaign they have A LOT of work ahead of them. Forget about jumping over the Jumpman, adidas has had some serious issues competing with Skechers and Under Armour (both of which have dethroned them from the number two spot at one point or another in the past two years).
The one positive about this most recent “diss track”? From a shoe head standpoint it rehashes memories of the days of fierce competition between Reebok and Nike (we all know who won that competition too). Who could forget these commercials?
In addition to the Reebok beef, it also rehashes memories of a brand by the name of L.A. Gear. As of late, adidas has relied heavily on celebrities as a way to create brand awareness to drive sales. This was something that L.A. Gear did too (Remember when L.A. Gear signed Michael Jackson to a shoe deal?) By 1992 L.A. Gear was the third largest footwear brand. Nearly 25 years later and they are struggling to push 5-6 styles of shoes that are carried through Sportie LA. The moral of the story? It may be in adidas and Kanye West best interest to stay in their lane, stay focused on reclaiming the number 2 spot and making positive financial moves within the brand (as well as at Reebok) to chip away at Nike’s sizable market share so that maybe one day Yeezy and adidas could potentially jump over the Jumpman (in sales that is) and not wind up 25 years later as some brand that you used to know (shout out to Gotye).