Adidas cut ties with Kanye West’s Yeezy due to anti-Semitic comments; however, that only boosted the shoe’s resale market, according to NYPost.
“Right now, I have 10 Yeezys, but I had 40 or 50,” Kelechi Asoluka, 33, told The Post. “The prices started going up like crazy, and I started selling them. A few weeks ago, I sold Yeezys for as much as $800 a pair. I originally bought them for maybe $250 to $350 each.”
The New Jersey-based personal trainer and sneaker restorer said he could have cash in more than the $10,000 he earned in the earlier few weeks.
“I thought prices would go up and then drop; that was why I sold them so fast,” Kelechi said. “But I kind of messed up. I sold my Yeezy 750s for $800. Now they’re going for $1,000 to $2,000. I’m pissed.”
According to Wall Street Journal, the “market has been going insane” since Adidas canceled Ye’s Yeezy; its prices jumped more than 20 percent.
“Recently, [West’s] stuff was not doing as well as it had because it was just becoming another tennis shoe,” reseller Isiah Davis-Jackson, who has $30,000 worth of Yeezys, told The Post. “Now, because people think he’s done, the shoes are back in style.”
In the sneakers world, rarity is everything; the more limited an edition, the more it is in demand. “Every few years, Kanye and Adidas would do reissues,” Kelechi said. “So you never knew when [a model] would come back” — potentially decreasing values. He said that even the most popular Yeezys “are definitely not coming back.”