The Fate of Kanye West, the Unknown Victim of the Christie’s Auction at the New York Supercenter, TJ Maxx and Adidas
Retailers are dumping it. New product listings associated with it are being blocked by reselling companies. Even off-price outlets like TJ Maxx don’t want any goods associated with hate-speaker Kanye West, the embattled rapper who has legally changed his name to Ye.
Gerome Sapp, the chief executive of Rares, said that it was the corporation that purchased the prototype for $1.8 million that wanted to allow investors to cash out through the now- canceled sale at Christie’s.
“There really are no good options for this distressed brand that sat somewhere between prestige and luxury,” said Burt Flickinger, retail expert and managing director at retail consultancy Strategic Resource Group.
The remaining items will not be sold byGap. It is likely that Adidas will release products under its own name, and that it will destroy some merchandise as well. Adidas has stated that it will not pay any more royalties to Yeezy.”
Offloading the merchandise into the domestic discount channel probably won’t work, either. TJ Maxx, a major player in the discount space, stated it will not buy any Yeezy products to sell in its stores.
Why Yeezys? How to Avoid the Consequences of Ye’s Comments and Their Impact on the Resale Market
There’s the environmental impact of destroying or disposing of unsold merchandise. Making clothing and other apparel already comes at a high environmental cost because of the resulting green house gas emissions, significant water use, water pollution and textile waste. The problem is only compounded by the methods used for disposing of unwanted clothing.
GoTRG is a product returns management company that processes over 100 million distressed, unsold, or returned items annually for manufacturers, online retailers and big-box chains. And they’re anticipating a fallout against the Yeezy brand even in secondary markets.
Even though the retailers currently are unwilling to sell products associated with Ye’s brands, companies like ours that run secondary marketplaces will be just as unwilling to sell those products.
Rebranding merchandise to camouflage the controversy is another common industry tactic, experts say. The logo of the distressed brand may be disguised or removed.
When it comes to problematic merchandise, using countries based on need and whereDurability of productmatters more than brand or fashion is an industry fallback.
In 2018, a paper from Moritz Lutz and Peter Bug of Reutlingen University in Germany found that Nike, Air Jordan and Adidas accounted for 98 percent of the total sneaker resale market revenue globally. And when it comes to the Adidas share, Mr. Ljustina of Project Blitz said, most of that is Yeezys.
That’s important because it explains why Ye’s recent remarks may have a negative effect on the resale market. If you purchase a shoe that is associated with a certain viewpoint, that shoe can connect you to that viewpoint in a similar way that wearing a hat implies a political view. One Florida man, Danny Shiff, went viral for burning $15,000 of Yeezys he owned and posting the video on TikTok in reaction to Ye’s statements. He said that he would donate the proceeds from the sale of his final Yeezys to charities fighting antisemitism and racism.
The Middle East, Russia, and China are countries where the popularity of Yeezys are high, according to Mr. Ljustina.