How Kanye Destroyed The $1,700,000,000 Shoe

In 2020, a pair of Adidas Yeezys cost $220 to buy and about $25 to manufacture. The man whose name was on the shoe pulled in $191 million a year in royalties plus a $100 million annual marketing fund he could spend however he wanted. Two years later, he destroyed the most profitable sneaker partnership in history and left €1.2 billion worth of shoes sitting in warehouses with nobody willing to touch them. This is the full story of how Kanye West and Adidas built the Yeezy empire — and how two weeks in October 2022 ended it. We break down why Kanye walked away from Nike, the 15 percent royalty structure that made him the highest-earning non-athlete in sportswear history, the Yeezy Boost 350 and 750 launches that made Adidas cool again in America, how a single product line came to represent 40 percent of Adidas's entire profits, the media tour that triggered termination, the two-minute boardroom vote that killed a $1.7 billion revenue stream, and the €1.2 billion inventory problem nobody knew how to solve. CHAPTERS 00:00 — How Kanye Destroyed the $220 Shoe 00:53 — Why Kanye Walked Away From Nike 02:53 — The Deal That Broke Every Rule in Sportswear 04:25 — Yeezy Boost 350 and the $1.7 Billion Line 05:45 — When 40% of Adidas Profits Came From One Man 07:16 — October 2022: Two Weeks That Ended Everything 10:51 — €1.2 Billion in Unsold Yeezys ABOUT SHOES WITH LACES Shoes With Laces is a weekly documentary series on the economics, history, and cultural stories behind the sneakers you grew up with. Every Friday we break down how a single pair of shoes shaped an industry, made or broke a brand, or changed the way people think about footwear forever. Investigative video essays for people who want the story behind the shoe, not the hype around it. SUBSCRIBE for a new sneaker documentary every Friday. SOURCES AND FURTHER READING Adidas 2022 and 2023 Annual Reports, Forbes coverage of the Kanye West net worth revaluation, CNBC reporting on the Adidas-Yeezy termination, Bloomberg analysis of the unsold inventory writedown, Business of Fashion reporting on the original deal structure, The New York Times coverage of the October 2022 media tour, Reuters coverage of the boardroom decision. #KanyeWest #Yeezy #Adidas #SneakerHistory #SneakerDocumentary #YeezyBoost350 #Wendover #BusinessCaseStudy