Kanye West unleashed a barrage of tweets over the weekend, ranging from old photos of his and his mom’s year in China, to unseen adidas YEEZY footwear samples. The model that stood out most was a pair of YEEZY D. Rose sneakers, that West said were “coming soon.”
The sneaker — presumably a basketball shoe, as adidas and Derrick Rose’s signature line is still active — looks unlike anything that has ever graced the NBA hardwood and is even a step further conceptually than the recently-released YEEZY Quantum. Needless to say, the YEEZY D. Rose immediately caught the attention of sneakerheads, with many clowning the shoe’s shape (which looks like the shoe is one big midsole) on Twitter.
Derrick Rose’s wife later gave us an on-foot look at the sneaker via Instagram. Though she was wearing size US 12s as a joke, Alaina Anderson gave us an idea of how the sneaker is worn and what it could look like on foot.
If anything, the shape of the sneaker reminds strongly of the recently-released YEEZY Slides and YEEZY Foam Runner, both of which were blasted on Twitter and other social media outlets before selling out. In the case of the Foam Runner, the style is reselling for many times its retail price on platforms such as StockX.
While it’s fair to say that certain silhouettes — such as the adidas YEEZY Boost 350 V2 — have been squeezed for everything they’re worth, the YEEZY D. Rose and the aforementioned Foam Runner and Slides show Kanye can still push the envelope.
While no concrete release information exists about the adidas YEEZY D Rose — or whether we’re even looking at the retail version — anyone who doubts that this shoe will be a success upon release doesn’t know Kanye West and YEEZY. It’s likely that the first release will be highly limited to ensure the shoe sells out and to raise the profile of the silhouette.
At the very least, Kanye has proven yet again, that he thinks outside the box when it comes to sneaker design and that he has many more surprises up his sleeve.