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On January 14, 2025, Kanye West took to Instagram to post a story about a new Yeezy sneaker called the YZY SL-01 featuring no laces. The pair retailing for $20 is the second piece of footwear offered by Ye's brand at a lower price point, with the first one being the Yeezy Pods reduced from $200 to $20 in February 2024.
However, unlike the Yeezy Pods, which featured long, socks-like structures attached to the footwear, the YZY SL-01 looks like Ye's version of normal sneakers. The video posted by Ye on his story went viral, and netizens took to X to express their opinions on the rapper's newest launch.
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Commenting on the footwear's design, an X user tweeted:
"Nah, I’m neither a hobo or an astronaut."
"No thanks. I can get the same ones through my insurance for an orthopedic doctor," an X user commented.
"Dope but would've been more nicer with laces," another X user mentioned.
"I closed my eyes just like the monkey emoji he can do better than this," an internet user stated.
"Those are some ugly sneakers," another internet user said.
On the other hand, some internet users mentioned that the newly launched Yeezy footwear looked nice:
"I actually think they look nice," an X user tweeted.
"They LOOK comfortable. I’ll wait for reviews, and if they are it’s a cop," a netizen commented.
"They look comfortable I’ll buy," another netizen mentioned.
"Yall tried to intimidate and oppress me"— Kanye West addresses former collaborator Adidas in Instagram post
Kanye West's latest Yeezy launch followed his now-deleted Instagram post from January 7, 2025, wherein he called out his former collaborator Adidas and designer Jerry Lorenzo. Attaching a screenshot of the search results typing Yeezy.com, the rapper claimed that when one googles the website, the Adidas site appears before his Yeezy site.
In his Instagram post, Kanye asked "members at Adidas" to stop the practice and emphasized that their partnership was over. The rapper said that Adidas is a 60 billion dollar company and claimed they froze his accounts. Commenting on how he was back on his feet despite his collaboration with the brand being terminated, Kanye West mentioned:
“I’m not going to stand for this (no pun again) I did phenomenal work for you guys and because I stood up for myself yall tried to intimidate and oppress me everyone remembers I had major issues with adidas because of design theft and oppression before ‘the tweet.'”
Additionally, Ye also targeted designer Jerry Lorenzo, calling him "corny and disloyal" for continuing his work with Adidas despite the rapper's partnership with the brand getting terminated. Kanye West mentioned that he still showed up at Lorenzo's show, "being the so called bigger man," stating the designer's show was a copy of his "Hollywood bowl show."
"...but I’m never doing that again for no one It’s Yeezy over everything," the rapper added.
In his now-deleted Instagram post targeting Adidas, Kanye West mentioned that his brand sold over a million pairs of Yeezy Pods. The rapper added that he has been working on ten varied styles of footwear for the past 2 years. Additionally, Adidas reportedly removed all Yeezy products from its website after Ye's rant on Instagram.
