Despite Kanye West’s latest diss-track being more in need of fact-checking than actually being the ‘Facts’ he’s titled it, it appears that he might have been onto something.
Because, for all its fictional claims and exaggerated assertions, sitting pretty at the top spot for Instagram’s most liked sneaker brand in 2015, was Adidas Originals.
Kick Posters, with the help of 2015 Best Nine site, investigated who the most liked sneaker brands were on Instagram in 2015, and as far as social media goes, Yeezy was right – Adidas is on top.
And perhaps most surprisingly, the runner up wasn’t Nike. The Adidas brand of sneakers had 78.8 million likes, and Vans, its closest competitor, had just over 40 million likes on Instagram.
Way down in third place was Nike, with nearly 30 million likes.
While wife Kim Kardashian stayed at home on New Year’s Eve, Yeezy was busy releasing his latest song ‘Facts’. But instead of the love song ‘Only One’ for his daughter North that he dropped back in 2014, this was a slightly less fuzzy-around-the-edges rap about multibillion dollar company, Nike.
Inspired by his failed partnership with the corporation and subsequent relationship with Adidas, the song brazenly suggests that sportswear brand Nike isn’t doing so well.
And whether it’s a jump on the latest bandwagon of diss-tracks (thanks Drizzy), allowing him to list the ways in which Adidas trumps Nike, or perhaps cynically a ploy to make people buy even more Yeezy Boost 350s, he seems pretty convinced of the former company’s dominance.
Kanye’s latest song made bold claims that “If Nike ain’t have Drizzy, man they wouldn’t have nothin’.
And as fond as they may be of Drake, it would be bending the truth more than a little to say that without him they would be left with nothing.
Nike is the biggest sportswear and footwear brand in the world with plans to reach $50 billion in revenue by 2020, and made $7.7 billion alone in one quarter last year.
Adidas has had a big year, showing 13 per cent growth from the previous year, and Kanye West’s high profile collaboration with the Three Stripes has no doubt fuelled some of this. But it wouldn’t exactly be fair to say that Nike “can’t give sh*t away”.
Interestingly Kick Posters statistics also show brand loyalty by tracking each companies likes to followers ratio. And while Adidas is in third position here, usurped by Vans and New Balance respectively, it’s Nike again who are trailing – but this time in last place.
While social media is certainly no small fry, and Nike would do well to pay close attention, it’s a stretch for Kanye to suggest that Nike are dead and buried.
And lest we forget that clicking the like button on Instagram is not the same as shelling out top dollar for a pair of sneakers.
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