First Supposed Adidas YEEZY Sneakers Without Ye Emerge In Photos Online
It’s not been a YEEZY time for everyone involved with Kanye West’s streetwear brand, least of all Adidas. Following a very public breakup, the German sportswear giant says it will continue to use YEEZY designs but cut out the branding in 2023.
Adidas owns the rights to YEEZY footwear designs, so it does have the power to rebrand existing sneakers as its own while building upon their silhouettes for future drops. According to Complex, the company noted at its Q3 2022 earnings call that it plans to reuse existing inventory in the coming year.
Now, sneaker leaker Influence Drops (formerly Yeezy Influence) has intel that the first Adidas YEEZY to be launched without West’s branding will be a 350 V2 sneaker with a new ‘Granite’ colorway.
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The ‘Granite’ variant was originally intended for release this fall, but its launch was apparently delayed by the split with Ye and will instead be rolled out in January. The initial design with YEEZY’s branding on the tags has been making its rounds on resale platforms, but the official version should come without them.
Adding fuel to the rumors, Adidas has also submitted a trademark application for ‘SPLY-350’, as discovered by sneaker community SoleSavy.
Images of the adidas 350 V2 'Granite' have surfaced, confirming that adidas is moving forward without YEEZY branding. pic.twitter.com/JtBCDTYAUh
— SoleSavy (@SoleSavy) December 19, 2022
While the 350 V2 in ‘Granite’ is believed to be the first pair of non-YEEZY YEEZYs that Adidas will debut, images of Adidas slip-ons resembling the style of West’s brand surfaced first in November.
In a similar vein, sneaker reseller Ian Thomas, more popularly known as Masterchefian, has revealed what looks to be an upcoming YEEZY 500 design that will also be liberated from the YEEZY branding.
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Adidas is expecting to suffer some withdrawals while it goes cold turkey on its most hyped-up collaboration. The brand is anticipating short-term cuts of up to US$250 million in net income in 2022, since YEEZY launches make up 33% of its overall annual revenue.
[via Complex and We Got This Covered, images via various sources]
