In the midst of Kanye West’s ongoing battles with Gap and Adidas, it looks like there are still some brands willing to roll the dice with the mercurial producer. To be fair, his popularity has seemingly continued despite his becoming better known for controversy, so of course, brands hope to enjoy the halo effect of that.
While launching a deluge of Instagram posts criticizing Adidas on Monday, Kanye also enigmatically posted the “SAS” logo of San Antonio Shoemakers with a happy face emoticon — yes, that’s emoticon, not emoji. Apparently, Kanye is posting from 2009. SAS is a Texas-based comfort shoe brand that primarily competes with Clarks, ECCO, and New Balance for a market demographic that mostly consists of senior citizens, who are decidedly not Kanye’s core audience.
So, what are Kanye West’s plans with SAS?
On Monday, Kanye also posted, “What shoe company will give me control? I need to be the head of the board and the chief decision maker.” It’s likely that Kanye believes that the company would be amenable to these terms — terms he says his current footwear partner Adidas, which handles the manufacture of his Yeezy brand, are not. Kanye has argued that when he partnered with Adidas — likely more of a licensing situation — he was promised Yeezy brick-and-mortar stores and a spot on the board. Obviously, with Kanye acting so erratically lately, that’s a gamble few companies are willing to take.
According to the San Antonio Express-News, in response, the company said, “We sincerely appreciate the interest Ye (Kanye West) has expressed towards our company and look forward to continuing the conversation around a potential collaboration.” For what it’s worth, SAS has been shifting its focus, hoping to expand to a younger demographic. We’ll see if they believe working with Kanye is worth the headaches. to get it.
