No One Man Should Have All That Power: The Packaging and Selling of Kanye West’s Yeezy Boost

A brand becomes an economic asset for a firm when people come to count on it to contribute to social life, when it is embedded into society and culture. Brands are accepted into social life because they provide their customers real informational, interactional and symbolic benefits. The power of a brand derives from a curious mixture of how it performs and what it stands for, which, when mixed together properly, can lead consumers to feel that something has been added to their lives.

Celebrity brands in particular are seen not simply for their economic value but as mediatised marketing accomplishments which rely on allure, glamour and charisma constructed around myths of transformation and belonging. Kanye West as a celebrity brand, and the circulation of The Yeezy Boosts (2015) represents a commodity traded by promotions, publicity and the media industry which produces certain representations. Simon Frith (1987) suggests that popular music stars generate more emotional meaning than other media events or performers. Music artists, more than other forms of celebrity, demonstrate the power and influence of the public personality. The symbolic value and consumption of West’s name have become key constituents of his own brand identity. This value has framed the reasons why Kanye followers are attached to the symbolic meaning constructed around brand ‘Yeezy.’

Celebrity culture is central to the logic of an emergent aesthetic economy; the boundaries between them are increasingly blurred in the name of capitalism and marketing. Boorstin (1961), suggests that a celebrity culture is driven by image and simulation at the expense of substance and reality. In this way, celebrity becomes a spectacular commodity. New cultural meanings are presented where the celebrity is used — and exploited — as a commodity. Kanye West is a music artist who built his artistic and celebrity persona as a brand with a clear commercial mission. West is a record producer, songwriter, singer, actor, film producer, rapper, businessperson, screenwriter, fashion designer and music video director worth approximately $120 million USD (2014). Nelson George (1998) submits that Hip Hop has always been a capitalist tool, which suggests that money and consumption have always been celebrated. With a focus on style and fashion in the production of a Hip Hop identity, there is a reinforcement of the norms of consumer culture and an emphasis on the importance and centrality of fashion within it.

As such, Kanye West, like many Hip Hop artists, is particularly relevant as a focus of investigation as he is often associated with transformations in both musical style and style of dress in efforts to assert his authenticity. Clothing and accessories have long been the elements that make the Hip Hop subculture strongly contrast with the mainstream landscape.

West has come to occupy a unique place in promotional culture whereby he has been awarded an extremely loyal fan base, one that is mobilized to consume in abundance as to appear in accordance with what he represents. The Adidas Yeezy Boost comes to reflect the attitudes of West fans as they are a reflection of his image, taste and interests; in contrast to that of the general public, consumption of The Yeezy Boosts is significant of an active selection process, one that is endowed with distinction for those who sport them. The shoes allow people to communicate characteristics such as status and individuality through a system of codes, symbols, and signs. The shoes therefore become invested with personal meaning in accordance with West’s eccentric image and outspoken attitude. In order to understand the cultural and promotional impact of The Boosts, an understanding of both celebrity branding and the significance of fashion must be established. A successful celebrity such as Kanye West can be thought of as brand manager, actively engaged in developing and promoting himself as a recognizable product in the competitive cultural sphere (Schroeder 2010). His identity brand, in this way, works best when he involves consumers, generating and evoking more intense emotional attachments and subsequently, the urge to consume in some fashion.

I have reached the glass ceiling as a celebrity…I am a product person” — Kanye West

The symbolic value and consumption of his name, image, art, his diverse, vanguard style and eccentric personality became key constituents of his own brand of identity. This has framed the reasons why Kanye followers are attached to the symbolic meaning constructed around brand Yeezy. The whole structure of his celebrity is built on the construction of the individuated personality. He is a human commercial intertext with symbolic capital that is transferable to other forms of capital and professional fields.

When clothes leave the factory where they are made, they are simply garments. However, when the marketers get a hold of them they magically become fashion. Promotion is personified in the shape of the supermodel, celebrity designer, and celebrity-turned- designer. Cultural codes, ideological discourse, and consumer background knowledge have been cited as underlying influences of consumer’s relationships to brands and mass media (Schroeder 2010). Cultural codes contribute to and constrain how brands work to produce meaning. Oftentimes, rather than adopting a constant and rigid affiliation to a movement, people negotiate their own personality by combining a series of images, symbols and values which are not always incorporated within the boundaries of the same movement. Highlighting their own individuality is more important than conforming to a set of group norms. The desire for social distinction, prestige, and personality via consumption and style is intensifying.

“I’m the Gap like Banana Republic and Old Navy…”

Fashion co-branding has shown an incredible marketing response and it can create a win-win situation for the brands involved. This process is typically seen in the fast-fashion industry where clothing retailers like H&M will collaborate with luxury designer brands such as Lanvin, Stella McCartney, Jimmy Choo and Versace (Choi 2014). However, these shoes are a product of the marriage between Adidas and Kanye West as a celebrity brand. A common feature of co-branding, as seen here, is to try and co-opt a trendy brand while creating uniqueness in the fashion market: Adidas accomplishes this through producing scarcity with small quantities whereas Kanye creates exclusivity with an expensive product which reflects who can buy it, and who is loyal enough to dish out the money. Furthermore, exclusivity is created as the shoes only exist in the form of limited edition collections which are understood to have a discontinuation date. Lastly, The Yeezy Boosts carry Kanye’s name, are marketed as being created by him, and therefore emphasize trendiness and newness. Kanye’s status as a Hip Hop pioneer with outspoken opinions and extremely popular music has constituted a brand in itself. The shoes gain a set of human characteristics associated with Kanye; his brand works to inflect meaning into the Adidas shoe. They are understood as a separate entity underneath the Adidas conglomerate due to their special relationship with the music star. Furthermore, consumers are influenced not only by the function or quality of the shoe, but more so by the symbolic meanings associated with them. Consumers use the personalities associated with the shoe for self-expression and subcultural capital within Hip Hop culture. His overt and direct influence on the design of the shoe means that people can like what he likes; consumers appear to have the same taste as him and therefore gain symbolic and subcultural capital within the Hip Hop field. Additionally, those who sport them are seen to have the economic capital to do so, establishing themselves as a part of a taste culture that is distinguished from the mainstream. In Dick Hebdige’s view, young people’s consumption, as opposed to the general public’s, has been characterized by an active selection and appropriation, investing everyday objects with subversive meanings. The representatives of subculture communicate through goods, objects (clothes, accessories, music, etc.), consciously distorting their significance and investing them with personal meanings. Despite being produced and distributed through Adidas, The Boosts maintain subcultural capital in their exclusivity and retain a subversive meaning through an association with the always subversive Kanye West.

In relation to celebrity culture, while not all fan activity invariably involves acts of consumption, being a fan most often is associated with consuming. For Kanye fans, this might mean attending a concert, or watching him on SNL or an awards show. This form of emotional engagement is often considered in relation to the formation of para-social relationships where fans develop an illusion of intimacy with their preferred celebrities. Kanye’s fan engagement also comes in a direct exchange of economic capital for symbolic capital in the form of shoes. Here, there is a symbolic purchase of subcultural capital.