100’s of Yeezy fans left disgruntled by Adidas’ new raffle system!

 

Last weekend I came down to House of Hoops Footlocker, to see Kanye West’s launch of the Yeezy 350 Boost V2. And like many others I was shocked to be greeted by no queuing fans. This was the second location I had to come to, only to be met by five other people also waiting outside. After a short while, a pleasant security guard emerged to let us know that the trainers were not for general release. These could only be purchased if you had won a raffle held at their store two days prior.

Footlocker House of Hoops, Oxford Street, London

This new raffle system was extremely beneficial to retailers. As it deterred people from queuing outside their shops for days on end, disrupting traffic and casual passers-by. But it left many fans extremely disheartened and disappointed, having realised they woke up at 4am for nothing. There was no chance they were leaving with a pair of the highly anticipated Yeezy’s. Despite this, Kanye West’s fans still came out in full force wearing pieces from his past collections.

Left to Right: Two Yeezy 350 Boost V2 "Black/Green", Yeezy 950 "Moonrock" and Nike Air Yeezy 2 "Red October".

Many fans flocked to the McDonald's next door armed with laptops, mobile phones and portable chargers to try their luck online as most sites went live at 9am releasing the limited collection there. Websites like Footlocker quickly crashed, and fans were placed in queues where they waited for hours to try and get a pair.

As it approached 9am the first official customers turned up to collect the new colourway. Maryanne and Shareef left their workplace specifically to come pick theirs up. The store did not officially open until 10am, but they were kindly letting raffle winners come in and collect the footwear before the store got busy.

Maryanne and Shareef, the first customers of the day.

One of Kanye’s biggest fans came to the launch wearing; a Yeezy 350 Boost V2 in the colourway “Black/Green” on his left foot, a Yeezy Boost V2 in the colourway “Black/Red” on his right foot, whilst sporting a Kanye Dad hat. His name was Kes and also went by the name The_YoungPlug. He already had 9 pairs of Yeezy’s in his collection and was looking to add to it. As he managed to get two pairs he sold one pair to a desperate fan for £470, more than double the retail price!

Yeezy fan, Kes

Some people were lucky enough to win more than one raffle. There were at least half a dozen people in the queue that had been to Offspring first to collect their first pair and then came down to Footlocker to collect their second.

Multiple raffle winners

The system definitely needs to be looked at as it quickly became clear to a lot of disappointed fans that they weren’t being catered for any more. If you were one of the lucky ones that managed to get your hands on the exclusive footwear, then congratulations. If not, the next zebra print colourway drops later this month (February 25^th) so good luck!