Back in 2013 or 2014 or so, most of us #sneakerheads were pretty excited about Kanye West joining @adidas. We were all highly anticipating his first offering to the sneaker gods.
And then the first grainy photo leaked. It looked like someone took the pic from behind Kanye on an airplane and posted it. The pic was horrible quality, but nothing could have prepared me for Kanyes first adidas design. The first time I saw that 750, I thought it was the ugliest shoe ever created. My heart kinda sank as I realized how dreadful it was. I knew no matter what – I’d never come around to that design (and I still haven’t)

I remember talking to another sneakerhead about the shoe and he said “well, at least he had full creative control, because at @Nike it looks like they just gave him a bunch of pieces like Mr. Potatohead and asked him to throw something together.” And I must say…that was a really astute observation.

#adidas allowed Kanye full creative control. And love it or hate it, that’s where we are. Adidas has been much better with allowing collaborators creative control and in my opinion that’s where the biggest design leaps really occur. From Y3 to Pharrell to RO to Alexander wang, these guys are really pushing it forward, even if the hype ain’t here.