Kanye West has sparked huge queues across the UK after his latest shoe collaboration with Adidas went on sale.
Adidas announced on Thursday that it would be releasing the Yeezy Boost 350 v2 in ‘Black Static’ today (June 7), sparking huge queues outside sports shops from the early hours.
Photos posted on Twitter show large crowds of fans gathering outside stores in the UK and Europe in a bid to get their hands on the £180 shoes.
Those who opted to stay at home have experienced similar scenes, with sites including Footlocker and JD Sports crashing under the weight of heavy traffic.
One user wrote: “Trying to cop these new black yeezy 350 boosts. Was in a queue for like 1hour 30+ Footlocker is down so there’s no way imma cop them.”
Another said: “More queues outside footlocker, that is not open yet. Many with JD bags trying to “cop” multiple pairs.”
Have you seen the queue outside @footlocker on Princes Street for @kanyewest #YEEZYBOOST350V2 ?#edinburgh #yeezy #crazymarketing pic.twitter.com/BnVk8uBHUq
— 291 Media (@291_media) June 7, 2019
So why is there a queue at Footlocker pic.twitter.com/sisOVFSGxU
— Squidegy (@utopiatoo) June 7, 2019
A third added: “What donut at @FootLockerEU keeps taking on these big Yeezy drops when their website obviously can’t handle increased traffic. It happens every fucking time it’s just straight incompetence now.”
Footage obtained by the Daily Mirror also appears to show a bouncer attempting to push people away from a locked shop door as they attempt to enter.
https://twitter.com/Aligns/status/1136895531941355520
Describing the demand, one industry insider told the Evening Standard: “Yeezys have always been popular just because it’s Kanye, and like other hype trainer releases, the quantities are kept deliberately limited to make it harder to get. Plus whenever a brand releases a coveted shoe in all-black there’s always added hype.
“In general this kind of release is done on a raffle basis or with an online queueing system to stop sites crashing, etc. But not all of them are equipped to deal with that sudden influx of demand,” he added, as social media users posted photos of customers carrying multiple adidas shoe boxes.
Meanwhile, Kanye was among the guest stars who featured on Tyler, The Creator’s latest album, ‘IGOR’.