Let me start by saying that I know it’s early in the year. It’s mid-February. It’s still cold, snowy and nasty out, and although it’s drawing closer and closer, spring still seems like it’s a long ways away.
Even with all the factors above taken into account, I still don’t think it’s too early to speculate on what might happen through the whole year, and no matter what my thoughts about the sneaker game might be centered around, they all seem to keep coming back to the same thing: 2015 just might be the year of Adidas.
I know you might be thinking that this is an easy prediction to make while the hype surrounding Kanye’s first signature model with Adidas is very high, but in my defense, I alluded to it in my 2014 end-of year reviews, well before the shoe was revealed.
Just for the sake of discussion, let’s ignore all the hype surrounding the Adidas x Kanye partnership, and look at the other moves the Three Stripes have made to put themselves in a great position for the upcoming year: They’ve got popular artists like Pharrell and Big Sean under contract, have continued their strong relationships with grade-A designer like Jeremy Scott and Yohji Yamamoto, have released a bunch of crazy new models like the Tubular Runner and the SL Loop Moc (which is sold out nearly everywhere) and have world-class athletes like Derrick Rose and Lionel Messi under contract.
Even without the inclusion of the almighty Yeezus Christ, that’s a pretty formidable lineup. Adidas seems to be taking a unique route, using the “influencers” they have under contract to market to a very broad variety. Now let’s take a little time to talk about ‘Ye.
Kanye West is a very powerful creative force, and it seems that he finally has free reign to create as he sees fit with Adidas. Not only will he be rolling out a signature shoe, he has a whole line of apparel to go along with it. Kanye has made no secret of his desire to do this in the past, and now that he’s been truly afforded the chance to create as he sees fit, he may very well come out with some of his best design work. One can only imagine that Nike wishes they’d kept him under contract and let him work his magic.
No matter what happens, it’s bound to be a very, very interesting year for the Three Stripes. Here’s hoping they step their game up in a major way, and force the other major players in the market to do the same.
-RDwyer
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