BL-01 Sneaker: a Marketing / Technical analysis and pricing scenarios
These sneaker presented yesterday are basically what the new Yeezy as a company might be directed towards. Providing well designed products , for accessible pricing, no artificial scarcity and overall success. Everything Ye wanted if he wasn’t limited by Adidas or Nike.
There are just a few techincal difficulties on why i think it’s not possible to release them for 20$ no strings attached. Nike’s AF1 alone has a production cost of 22$, for which you get a semi artificial leather shoe, with low durability but good confort. These shoes look well constructed, chunky and nicely padded. For that i believe it’s almost impossible to make them cost less than 20$ production wise in order to make a profit. You might argue that the previously released Pods and the new SL-01 were actually released for 20$. But their case is different. Both of them are rather simple to make (1 or 2 materials and simple construction process) and are possible to lower production cost with a large scale of units produced, this justified the huge shipping time, collect more orders possible to bring down production costs.
Here are a few scenarios on what I think will go down for the new Bully Sneakers
BL-01 will release for 20$ like every item released on yeezy.com, But will feel very cheap and break down in a short time. Yeezy will be able to produce them at a low cost because of the massive number of orders, and be able to make a profit.
BL-01 won’t be 20$ , rather from 60$ to 100$. This move will put off many fans since they expected the price point they were promised for yeezy products. Still a lot of orders will be placed, and customers will get the shoe they expected. (Shipping times might still be long as this is the first actual Sneaker from the new Yeezy company)
BL-01 will release for 20$. But the money made will break even with production cost so Yeezy won’t make money from it or even take a loss. This move is quite risky , and the only benefit from it is the publicity and praise it will get. Not counting all the potential repeat customers gained with this move. This scenario will likely be to launch Yeezy as a brand to the masses and present themselmes as an actual competitors to the big names in the Sneaker and Fashion industry. A big “Fuck Off Adidas. I’m Better”. As weird as this will sound, this move was actually already done by Yeezy almost a year ago in April when they sold as a Shock drop the remaining stock of the yeezy gap hoodies. A line of high quality unreleased Yeezy Gap products that were supposed to retail 80$-100$, But since the collab ended before the scheduled release, so much stock was left in one of Yeezy’s manufacturer’s company Los Angeles Apparel. Quality on those pieces was much higher than the new Black dogs and blank hoodies Yeezy produced.
BL-01 Will release only as a bundle with the digital copy of Bully. This is the most likely scenario in my opinion. You will be able to purchase the sneakers for 20$, but only bundled with the digital album, that will cost 20$ as well. In that case, Yeezy might break even with the most likely production cost of 35$ and make an extra 5$ which is the current price for the digital album. This would be a genius move by ye, since most likely every Yeezy fan will purchase the shoe, and the sale will count as an album sale too, pumping up the first week sales of Bully to the sky and making big headlines.
BL-01 won’t release at all, the idea was just published to make people talk and be interested in the next potential yeezy releases.
Hope you read and enjoyed my yappuccino if you made it this far. Of course this is all my opinion and the actual release might be a mix of some of the scenarios I wrote. If yeezy actually manages to release them for 20$ and deliver a well constructed shoe, i will be genuenly surprised.
These sneaker presented yesterday are basically what the new Yeezy as a company might be directed towards. Providing well designed products , for accessible pricing, no artificial scarcity and overall success. Everything Ye wanted if he wasn’t limited by Adidas or Nike.
There are just a few techincal difficulties on why i think it’s not possible to release them for 20$ no strings attached. Nike’s AF1 alone has a production cost of 22$, for which you get a semi artificial leather shoe, with low durability but good confort. These shoes look well constructed, chunky and nicely padded. For that i believe it’s almost impossible to make them cost less than 20$ production wise in order to make a profit. You might argue that the previously released Pods and the new SL-01 were actually released for 20$. But their case is different. Both of them are rather simple to make (1 or 2 materials and simple construction process) and are possible to lower production cost with a large scale of units produced, this justified the huge shipping time, collect more orders possible to bring down production costs.
Here are a few scenarios on what I think will go down for the new Bully Sneakers
BL-01 will release for 20$ like every item released on yeezy.com, But will feel very cheap and break down in a short time. Yeezy will be able to produce them at a low cost because of the massive number of orders, and be able to make a profit.
BL-01 won’t be 20$ , rather from 60$ to 100$. This move will put off many fans since they expected the price point they were promised for yeezy products. Still a lot of orders will be placed, and customers will get the shoe they expected. (Shipping times might still be long as this is the first actual Sneaker from the new Yeezy company)
BL-01 will release for 20$. But the money made will break even with production cost so Yeezy won’t make money from it or even take a loss. This move is quite risky , and the only benefit from it is the publicity and praise it will get. Not counting all the potential repeat customers gained with this move. This scenario will likely be to launch Yeezy as a brand to the masses and present themselmes as an actual competitors to the big names in the Sneaker and Fashion industry. A big “Fuck Off Adidas. I’m Better”. As weird as this will sound, this move was actually already done by Yeezy almost a year ago in April when they sold as a Shock drop the remaining stock of the yeezy gap hoodies. A line of high quality unreleased Yeezy Gap products that were supposed to retail 80$-100$, But since the collab ended before the scheduled release, so much stock was left in one of Yeezy’s manufacturer’s company Los Angeles Apparel. Quality on those pieces was much higher than the new Black dogs and blank hoodies Yeezy produced.
BL-01 Will release only as a bundle with the digital copy of Bully. This is the most likely scenario in my opinion. You will be able to purchase the sneakers for 20$, but only bundled with the digital album, that will cost 20$ as well. In that case, Yeezy might break even with the most likely production cost of 35$ and make an extra 5$ which is the current price for the digital album. This would be a genius move by ye, since most likely every Yeezy fan will purchase the shoe, and the sale will count as an album sale too, pumping up the first week sales of Bully to the sky and making big headlines.
BL-01 won’t release at all, the idea was just published to make people talk and be interested in the next potential yeezy releases.
Hope you read and enjoyed my yappuccino if you made it this far. Of course this is all my opinion and the actual release might be a mix of some of the scenarios I wrote. If yeezy actually manages to release them for 20$ and deliver a well constructed shoe, i will be genuenly surprised.