Kanye West sportswear line launch in Sydney axed at last minute

Speculation in the US last week that Kanye West’s recent statements on President Donald Trump and slavery could alienate the African American and hip hop fans may have been proven right in Sydney.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that on Saturday morning, the launch of Season 6 collection of Yeezy x 2XU had to be cancelled when no one showed.

The range, in collaboration with Australian sportswear company 2XU whose fabric technology it uses, was to premiere at 2XU’s flagship store on Oxford Street in Paddington.

Shorts were priced at $500 and scuba leggings at $550.

In 2016, fans queued for more than five hours at a time on a Bondi street buy official merchandise of his Pablo tour.

This time around the store remained empty after opening at 9 am.

The SMH relayed, “The brand waited for about 45-minutes before shutting the whole thing down with a representative telling Fairfax Media: “There’s been a change of direction from head office and unfortunately the event has been cancelled.

“Further enquiries went unanswered.

“The hashtag “#YEEZYx2XU” had only been used 10 times on Instagram.”

The rapper’s wife Kim Kardashian West promoted the range’s arrival to her 110 million Instagram followers

Last month she posted a picture of herself in 2XU leggings, and was on the cover of Elle in America sporting the range.

It was to be expected that the furore created by West’s support for Trump and ill-advised comment in a rambling interview on TMZ Live about slavery, would negatively impact the release of the collection.

The African American community was enraged with the insensitivity of the comment: ”When you hear about slavery for 400 years — for 400 years?

“That sounds like a choice. Like, you were there for 400 years and it’s all of you all?”

Celebrities like Spike Lee, Wendy Williams, Eve and Whoopi Goldberg quickly called him out on it

Will.i.am lamented “That broke my heart because I thought about my grandma.”

Talib Kweli responded: “I will always have love for Kanye West but bro out here putting targets on our backs. Slavery was not a choice.”

West later clarified his comments on Twitter: “Of course I know that slaves did not get shackled and put on a boat by free will…

“My point is for us to have stayed in that position even though the numbers were on our side means that we were mentally enslaved.”

Already 16,000 signatures have appeared on a Care2 petition demanding that Adidas cut ties with West and his Yeezy sneaker line, “and tell the world they do not want anything to do with anyone who believes that millions of Africans chose to toil the fields in bondage for 400 years.”

It went on to state: “While Kanye can live safely in his multimillion-dollar castle, the rest of black America is continually marginalized and subject to unjust laws and treatment.

“Some even die because this behaviour is so ingrained in our society.”

So far Adidas is sticking by West, although CEO Kasper Rorsted plans to speak to West about his statements.

“There clearly are some comments we don’t support,” he said.

He added that while Yeezy sneakers were only “a small part” of the $25 billion company, West is important to Adidas’s strategy.

“Kanye Yeezy is a very important part for our brand, from a revenue standpoint less though, but it’s a very important part of how we promote our products particularly in the U.S. and other parts of the world.”

In April, Yeezy was branded at #9 in an index of the hottest brands” by The Business of Fashion and Lyst – and expected to climb to #3 by end of this year.

On April 25, West predicted Yeezy would “hit a billion dollars” in 2018 and was on its way to becoming a “decacorn” — a business valued over $10 billion.

The African American community in the US has a buying power of $1.2 trillion.