For sale: Yeezys, never worn
Brea Cowans is selling her Yeezys for just $75.
She started out with 15 pairs and is down to her final two. For Cowans,
28, recent antisemitic statements made by Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, were the last straw, enough for her to disavow Ye, an artist whose music and fashion designs she has been a fan of for years.
“It affected me in a way where, for me, as a doublesided coin — as a Black Jew — it was a bit too much for me to have someone that I idolized say something so out of pocket,” Cowans said. She plans to keep two pairs for sentimental reasons.
“I’ve been a fan of Kanye since I was a kid. Down to the music, down to the innovative style, as far as streetwear influence, that he has had in the fashion community,” said Cowans, who lives in Denver and works in health care as well as for her brother’s clothing company, Adult Entertainment. “The music that he made kind of changed the outlook on our generation’s perspective on music.”
“But as far as the fashion portion goes in his later antics,” she added, “I can’t necessarily stand behind that.”
Marcus Carter, 36, said that he knew sneaker collectors who sold all their Yeezys when Ye made his “slavery was a choice” comment in a 2018 interview with TMZ. “Of course, I didn’t like that comment as well, but I still just kind of, you know, it’s like, well, I’m going to keep my sneakers and not sell them,” said Carter, 36, a logistics analyst who lives in Memphis, Tennessee, and runs a small YouTube channel devoted to sneakers.
Ye’s most recent controversial behavior began
during his YZYSZN9
Paris Fashion Week show Oct. 3, which drew criticism when he wore a shirt emblazoned with the words “White Lives Matter.” On Oct. 6, Adidas said it was placing its partnerships with Ye under review. “What more do you need to review?” the Anti-Defamation League wrote in a statement posted Oct. 20.
“I can say antisemitic things, and Adidas can’t drop me. Now what? Now what?” Ye said on the Oct. 16 episode of the podcast “Drink Champs,” which is hosted by rapper N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN. (The episode has since been deleted, but clips are still circulating on social media.) On Oct. 25, Adidas announced it was cutting ties with Ye.
Adidas is not the only company cutting ties.
Gap had already ended its partnership with Ye in September but announced recently it was pulling all of Ye’s remaining merchandise from its stores and online. Footlocker did the same. CAA, Ye’s former talent agency, is no longer representing him, and the studio MRC announced this week it was scrapping a documentary project about him.
Still, despite Ye’s statements over the years, some fans, such as Carter, are standing by his work.
If Ye releases new designs, independently or with another brand collaboration, Carter, who owns
five pairs of Adidas Yeezys, said he would buy them. “One thing I do like about Yeezy and just everything with him, all of his designs are unlike anything else. And so if I like the design of the sneaker, I’d definitely purchase it and add it to the collection.”
But other fans drew the line years ago. Ye’s comments about slavery caused Brianna Thomas, 22, to stop supporting him. “There was actually a certain point where I was buying a lot of his stuff,” she said. When Ye started going on “problematic rants,” she said, she began reselling. Thomas, a musical theater student at the New School, said she still has one pair of black Yeezy 500s in storage, which she now plans to sell.
“This has always been a Kanye behavior,” Lance Ewing, 31, said. “It was just the actual words coming out of his mouth weren’t ever to this degree of evilness.” Ewing, who lives in Chicago and runs a small sneaker resale business, said he is putting multiple pairs of Yeezys up for sale.
For many, the question now is whether it’s possible to isolate the creator from his creations. “People talk about his, you know, comments or things. I’ll say, ‘I don’t agree with this,’ ‘I don’t agree with that’ or, you know, ‘Hey, you tripping with that,’ ” Carter said. “I guess it’s separating the art from the comments.”