Kanye West’s million-dollar sneakers

Hmay have failed in his bid to become US President and his wife Kim Kardashian West may have filed for divorce, but there has been some good news for Kanye West. He has become a billionaire six times over, according to reports last month. And Sotheby’s have just announced they are expecting a pair of West’s prototype Nike Yeezy 1 trainers to fetch more than $1 million (£727,000) at auction.

What’s so special about these gutties then?

Gutties? Someone is showing their age. The reason is the rapper wore the Nike Yeezy 1 prototypes during his performance at the 50th Grammy award ceremony back in 2008.

So that means they’re a small part of pop history.

And footwear history too, presumably?

Well, yes. That pair kicked off Kanye West’s hugely successful Yeezy sneaker and clothing brand. He didn’t make all those billions from music alone, you know. The Yeezy brand was launched in 2009 and saw West collaborate with Nike until 2013 when he switched to work with Adidas. Sotheby’s says that Yeezy’s success as a fashion brand means that the Nike Air Yeezy 1 isamong the most coveted sneakers for collectors.

I’m more of a brogues man myself. But are you saying that there’s a big market for trainers these days?

I’d say so. The global market for sneakers (as the Americans call them) was valued at approximately $79bn (£57.5bn).

Did I hear the devil was involved in some way?

Ah, you’re getting mixed up with the “Satan Shoes”. They are a bootleg; they were modified Nike Air Max sneakers in black and red created by the gay rapper Lil Nas X in collaboration with Brooklyn art collective MSCHF.

The number of pairs created was, you can probably guess, 666. They sold out in under a minute.

MSCHF claimed each pair of sneakers also contained a drop of human blood in the sole.

Hmm, Sounds like a health and safety nightmare. How did they go down?

There was a bit of a fuss. Nike’s lawyers quickly obtained a temporary restraining order and last week Nike and MSCHF settled out of court, with the latter agreeing to buy back the sneakers from their customers at their original $1,018 (£742) price.

Weren’t the Christian right up in arms too?

Yes, high-profile political and religious leaders condemned the sneakers, with one pastor calling them “evil” and “heresy”.

“We all knew that some people would take the Satan element of this seriously,” MSCHF’S creative director Kevin Wiesner told CNN.

“But I’m not sure we were entirely prepared for how much of a furore it would cause.”