Kanye’s Yeezy Sneaker Line May Lose Its Luster Without Its Scarcity

Not too long ago, it was unthinkable for a new Yeezy sneaker to drop and not sell out almost instantly. Every new release in the collaboration between rapper Kanye West and Adidas was a marriage of limited supply and abundant hype that sent sneakerheads scrambling for a pair and produced astronomical resale prices on secondary markets like StockX. But it’s now been a week since the latest drop—of the Yeezy Boost 350 in triple white—and while Adidas.com lists them as sold out, never fear: If you want a pair, you can easily find every size from 7 to 11.5 available on the official Yeezy Supply site (as of this writing). Adidas looks to be heavily cranking up distribution of the sneakers in an effort to realize West’s years-long dream of making Yeezys so widely available that everyone who wants a pair can get one. It’s a risky gambit. Hype-driven fashion, whether its Yeezys or Supreme hoodies, relies on scarcity for value. History indicates that as Adidas scales up and makes the sneakers available to the mainstream, that value will decline, potentially hurting the cachet of the Yeezy brand. Read more at Quartz.