Goodell vs. Yeezy: Kanye West and Adidas Look to Take on the NFL

Three weeks of NFL action, two AFC superstars and Kanye West’s partnership with Adidas was the recipe needed to have all the tongues on social media wagging.

Cleats. They’re worn by everyone in the National Football League. These grass-grabbing spikes allow a player to move around with a sense of traction and stability.

As a league that salivates over the very prospect of obedience, the NFL dictates what a player can and cannot wear, all the way down to footwear choices. So when Kanye West’s Yeezy Boost cleats appeared on a handful of NFL players, it was no surprise the league frowned upon the use of equipment that wasn’t on the league’s pre-approved list.

Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller was the first to rock a pair of Yeezy Boost 750s during pregame warm-ups against the Carolina Panthers in Week 1. He gushed on Instagram about the spikes, a gift from West and Team Adidas, but didn’t take them out onto the field for a full run.

A few days later, Houston Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins broke the seal and wore a pair of Yeezy Boost 350s against the Bears in the form of live-game action.

The NFL wasn’t impressed. Hopkins was fined $6,000, prompting him to tell reporters he would continue to wear the spikes only if “Kanye wants to pay the fine,” per ESPN’s Sarah Barshop.

To even begin to understand why these cleats became such a big deal, you first have to go back to West’s rise in the world of sneakers.

West has become this generation’s Michael Jordan. His line of sneakers has taken control of the industry, similar to Jordan back in the 1980s and ’90s. Any new model of Yeezy Boosts has become synonymous with turning digital storefronts into piles of mush on release days.

Take Eastbay, a worldwide supplier of athletic gear, for example. The company’s site has been rendered almost unusable, as John Kim of Sneaker News reported, each time a new sneaker surfaces.

The exclusivity of owning a pair has become a bigger part of the sneaker’s narrative than the shoe itself. And securing these kicks is an act in futility at this point, unless you’re willing to pay way above market price.

StockX, a platform created to shed a light on resale prices for sneakers, has pairs of the original Yeezy Boost 750 going for $2,750. The shoe retails for $350.

Since West joined forces with Adidas in 2013, the company has experienced tremendous growth. John Kell of Fortune reported how North American fiscal sales jumped 23 percent from the second quarter of 2015 to the present day. A bigger gain than Nike realized in the same timeframe.

All of those sales totals can’t be directly correlated to the Yeezy Boost line—Adidas has done an excellent job bringing fresh silhouettes to life. But nevertheless, the Kanye West effect is real, in terms of design and sales.

West’s sneakers are not merely borne of fashion. The inclusion of Boost technology, a foamy, lightweight material used to re-engineer the sole of the shoe to provide maximum comfort and support, turned the 350 model into a wearable, functional gym shoe. And the Boost …

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