adidas Yeezy Boost: Kanye West's epic that changed the war between adidas and Nike, turned streetwear into luxury and made you want more and more sneakers

"World, please tweet, use Facebook, Facetime, Instagram or whatever to get Mark Zuckerberg to contact me," Kanye West (Atlanta, Georgia, June 8, 1977) begged in 2016 through his twitter account. “I have a personal debt of 53 million dollars and I need Mark to invest 1,000 million in my ideas”.

It's been four years of this global whining and Kanye West isn't broke. And he's not, thanks to money from Facebook and Google—he also asked Larry Page, CEO of Alphabet, the search engine's parent company, for help. In fact, Kanye lives on a pile of money that he hasn't exactly earned from his concerts, since he barely gave a handful in 2019.

He is rich because he has become a powerful general fighting in a bloody war that has been going on for more than 50 years. A huge battle for a market that moves 55,000 million dollars a year around the world. A fight that pits two giants called Nike and adidas.

It is estimated that in 2019 alone, Kanye West earned around $150 million and that the vast majority of this money came from his Yeezy Boost sneaker brand. He is not the only one who has profited from this business. adidas, the brand under which he markets his footwear, has pocketed nearly $1.5 billion worldwide just from this range that streetwear lovers love.

Michael Jordan was a fan of adidas, as you read

The history of adidas Yeezy Boost sneakers does not begin with Kanye West signing for the German brand. Neither of the two protagonists of this fruitful mercantile relationship are even present. It begins in the fall of 1984 with Michael Jordan, his family, and David Falk, who was his agent at the time, getting on a private plane to Portland, Oregon.

At the time, Jordan was a very good-looking rookie recently signed by the Chicago Bulls. The forward reluctantly came to the meeting. Doubts assailed him. Why did he have to wear sneakers from a brand that was only known for its running pieces? Why hadn't his agent gotten a date with adidas, his favorite brand? Was there a better design than the adidas Superstar, the model worn by the vast majority of NBA players?

The answer to both questions lay with Rob Strasser, a Nike executive with aggressive ideas and extravagant ways. Strasser saw in Jordan not only the next NBA dominator, but a personal brand with stratospheric value; a transversal player capable of making both Chicago fans and basketball lovers fall in love, whatever his team, his country or his continent. Even beyond: the perfect athlete, the most admired.