Drake might have thrown shade at Adidas with the bar "check over stripes" in the Travis Scott 'Sicko Mode' record, but we at Cop The Drop prefer parity. So in this week's column, we are going to take a close look at the Adidas Yeezy Boost 700 V2 ‘Tephra’. But before we get into the value of it, it is time for a bit of history lesson—I mean, you got the know the context for your Yeezy flex and how Kanye West got to this point—if not what kind of sneakerhead are you?
Kanye's relationship with Nike and Adidas is well documented, but way before that, he had a sneaker collaboration called ‘Don’ with the French luxury giant Louis Vuitton. In a way, Kanye paved the way for Virgil Abloh to be the disruptive force that he is today in both the streetwear and luxury fashion scene.
There is no denying that Kanye has mad cultural currency and for a young man growing up in Chicago–where Michael Jordan was starring as a superhero in a Bull's uniform–Kanye and Nike seem like a perfect fit. In fact, in an interview, Kanye likened Nike to Obama: “perfect” but also “not really going to change anything”. Ultimately the split between the two boiled down to royalties for the sales of the Air Yeezys and Kanye feeling slighted by the design team at Nike.
But it is not all bad, since the debut of the Adidas Yeezy Boost in 2015, the sneaker line gave a huge shot in the arm for the German sporting giant. Remember the NMDs and the Pharrell collaborations coupled with the frenzy over the Yeezy Boosts? For a moment it looked like stripes had the upper hand over checks.
Kanye wanted to ride that momentum, but flooding the market with your stock is not always the best idea when launching a product, but neither is artificially creating scarcity by limiting qualities for prolong periods of time.
What Adidas did was to launch a limited amount of the Adidas Yeezys at first, before slowly increasing the number of sneakers that they put out. You get the cult-ish buzz of a big launch while still riding that wave for the sell through. While this writer is a tad bored of the onslaught of the same silhouette with different colourways, the demand for Yeezy doesn't seem to be waning.
Commodity: Adidas Yeezy Boost 700 V2 ‘Tephra’
Now you know how the Yeezy line got here, it is time to take a closer look at the Adidas Yeezy Boost 700 V2 ‘Tephra’ colourway. The sneaker leans more towards the chunky variant, with a patchwork of different grey tones in various materials like leather, nubuck and suede, finished with reflective details throughout.
Where: Adidas Pacific Plaza and adidas.com.sg/YEEZY
When: June 15
How: First come, first served
Retail: S$450
Price of the Yeezy Boost 700 V2 on the resale market in the last 7 days: Peaking at SGD556, with lows of SGD450. Average price is SGD534.
Recommendation: Hole onto your pretty pennies.
While it took a while for Kanye to deliver on his promise on Yeezys for everyone, he actually delivered on it. While the retail price remains high (even at SGD450, it is more than twice the retail price of the Sacai x Nike Blazers), Adidas has released an unprecedented amount of the Yeezy Boost. While the early release pairs have driven the price up, once the 15 June comes by, expect the price of the Adidas Yeezy Boost 700 V2 ‘Tephra’ to drop and hold at SGD40-50 above retail price on the secondary market.
But then again, why spend SGD450 just to make SGD50 dollars? You might run the risk of liquidating the sneaker too quickly, copping a loss and eating into your cash to invest into other sneakers.
Previous drops…
For every recognisable name that Nike has collaborated with—take for example Off-White, Comme des Garçons, Sacai, Undercover and Kim Jones—a large part of the credit goes to Fraser Cooke, Nike's global influencer marketing special projects senior director. Cooke is the gatekeeper of the some of the most influential and hype-worthy collaboration that the Swoosh has been pushing out in the recent years. Most of the time, the process begins with a conversation with the various designers, where they talk about music, sub-culture, and life. Eventually, the conversation leads back to the first memory of a Nike sneaker.
Now, why did we bring Cooke up? First, it would be nice to give a shout out to the man who brought us all these awesome sneakers. Second, it is a nice peek into the collaboration process; where designers get to fulfil their childhood dream of designing a sneaker for Nike.
But if you pay close attention, most of these Nike sneaker collaborations usually see the designer putting their own twist on a classic silhouette. But for Jerry Lorenzo, the man behind Fear of God, when the opportunity came knocking, he didn't want to revive a classic, but rather, he wanted to explore the notion of how classic performance sneakers became a part of streetwear culture (see: Air Jordans).
Commodity: Nike Air Fear of God 1 'Summertime Sail'
Now, the Air Fear of God 1s are not the first original silhouette born out of a collaboration; remember Kanye West's short-lived partnership with the Swoosh that resulted in the Air Yeezy 1s and 2s? But the Air Nike Fear of God 1s is a throwback to the idea that a performance sneaker which, in this case, was made for basketball, is able to make a smooth transition into casual wear. As successful as the other basketball sneaker lines have been for Nike, the rigours of the new NBA have players demanding for more technology incorporated into their sneakers; in the battle of form versus function, form wins every time if it means that the sneaker is going to prolong the said NBA player's career.
So while the rest of the basketball sneaker designers zigged, Lorzeno zagged. I mean, who else is better equipped to design a basketball sneaker than a fashion designer who actually played basketball at a college level—creating that sneaker that doesn't compromise on either form or function.
The Air Nike Fear of God 1 'Summertime Sail' is the fifth colourway, following the 'Black', 'Light Bone', 'Orange Pulse' and 'Frosted Spruce. Made with a breathable mesh upper, the tonal sneaker comes with a light grey suede toebox, TPU cage overlay, midsole and laces and is contrasted by a black Nike Swoosh and double Zoom Air sole unit seen through an icy blue window (a nod to the first Air Max 1s).
Where: Nike.com
When: June 8
How: Purchase online
Retail: S$479
Price of the Nike Fear of God 1 'Summertime Sail' on the resale market in the last 7 days: No recorded sales, but it is currently listed at SGD2,734 on StockX and Grailed.
Recommendation: Short it immediately.
As much as it pains me to say it (only because of how much I love this silhouette and would hate for it to perpetuate this insane cycle of hype and greed), sell the sneaker immediately if you manage to get your hands on a pair at retail. Based on the four previous colourway drops, the 'Light Bone' (which is the most tonal and most fuss-free colour) has proved to be extremely popular and thus the most lucrative on the secondary market.
The average resale price of the 'Light Bone' is SGD1,179 compared to the second highest iteration, 'Black', which is going at SGD1,088, while the 'Orange Pulse' and 'Frosted Spruce' were sold at SGD711 and SGD782 respectively. Using the sale history of the 'Light Bone' which sold at SGD2,177 on the secondary market on the drop date as a reference, we recommend that you sell the 'Summertime Sail' quickly before the value of the price stabilises. You are talking about a profit of SGD1,698 compared to SGD700.
Don't snooze guys. Or be a baller, and actually hoop it in.
