In a sneaker lifes youtube video he describes the rise and fall of the yeezy. The yeezy is a shoe made by famous rapper kanye west. He originally worked on the shoe with Nike but then transferred to Adidas thus leading to its downfall. When the shoe first came out it was the holy grail of all sneakers, it was impossible to get and extremely expensive but everyone wanted it. Now the shoe is very easy to get and is more affordable than it was before but now nobody wants it. Ever since the shoe was made widely available it has led to a decrease in popularity as well as resale value for example a shoe that used to sell for thousands are now only selling for 200. Everyone used to complain that the shoe should be made widely available to everyone but now people want the shoe to be limited because it's not cool to have something that everybody else has. In conclusion, making the shoe in high quantities destroyed its reputation to the sneaker community.
It is making a mass-culture theory argument because it directly shows the effect of mass producing items. The yeezy used to be one of the most sought after shoes in the world selling for a retail price of $220 and fetching upwards of $5000 a pair on the resell market. After switching to Adidas the yeezy slowly started to decline as they produced more pairs making the shoe less limited. This led to a decrease in popularity amongst the consumer because they did not want a shoe that everyone could get. People want something that stands out and separates them from the rest.
Even though the yeezy is not as popular that is used to be among the streetwear and shoe community it has still accomplished many things for the brand as a whole. The yeezy was one of the most sought after shoes and the biggest complaint at first was that it was so hard to get. Kanye realizing this problem he decided to make them in bigger runs going from only 3000 pairs to over 300,000 for each release. This is beneficial to the brand itself in the way that they are making more money but on the other end it has ruined their reputation to the community.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEjwqKcmnj8
Although the sneaker is on the more expensive side it is not the same value of what is use to be great example of it yeezy has not been the same since availability has change.
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