Kanye West appears to be trying to get back into the shoe game after Adidas cut ties with him last year over a string of anti-Semitic remarks.
The 45-year-old disgraced rapper has filed to trademark new Yeezy Sock Shoes, TMZ reported on Friday.
The documents were submitted on May 4 by West’s Mascotte Holdings Inc., and they listed the product as ‘YZY SOCK SHOES.’
The forms were reportedly light on details about what the sock shoes would look like, though they were described as ‘Socks; socks with leather soles.’
West appears to be pushing forward even as his old partner Adidas said it planned to sell its remaining stock of Yeezy shoes — without his branding — before donating the proceeds to charity.
New venture: Kanye West, 45, has filed to trademark Yeezy Sock Shoes, according to documents obtained by TMZ on Friday; seen in February 2020 in Beverly Hills
Long in the works: West was previously seen wearing what may have been an early version of the design in 2019. They were described as ‘Socks; socks with leather soles’
Although he’s only now trying to trademark the design, it appears to have been in the works for years.
TMZ shared a photo of the Monster rapper taken in 2019 showing him wearing what looked like a pair of gray socks.
They appeared to be more solid like a high-top shoe, and they also seemed to have the same leather soles as the new product.
It’s not clear if this is his next big inspiration, or if it was just a convenient design he had lying around from years earlier.
Even if West gets his trademark, it’s unclear how he would sell the sock shoes after Adidas ended its relationship with him.
Many retailers would be loathe to carry any product associated with him after a string of racist and anti-Semitic remarks, as well as his palling around with white supremacists and alt-right figures, including Nick Fuentes and Milo Yiannopoulos.
West could also try to sell them via his own Yeezy label, but he may have difficulties getting someone to even manufacture the socks.
Despite his public stocking being lower than ever, the rapper and producer is still moving forward with a 2024 presidential campaign, though his organization is still named Kanye 2020 after the last election.
Earlier this week, it was reported that the treasurer of his campaign had resigned.
Canceled: West would have a hard time getting someone to sell the shoes — or even manufacture them — do to his recent anti-Semitic comments; seen in 2015 in LA
Fire sale: Adidas has said it plans to sell some of its remaining stock of Yeezys and to donate the proceeds to chairty; seen in March 2022
On his way out Patrick Krason wrote two resignation letters, one of which was addressed to West and one that was sent to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Monday.
Krason claimed in his letter that he had learned of a ‘potentially serious criminal transaction’ involving the Kanye 2020 campaign, saying Yiannopoulos ‘submitted falsified invoices and for expenditures that would be deemed unlawful.’
Those transactions were allegedly made in November 2022, before Krason assumed the role as treasurer.
He further claimed there was too much ‘personal animosity’ for a professional relationship with Yiannopoulos – whose emails to both Fuentes, a known white supremacist, and Alexander were similarly leaked by TMZ.
