Fear of God Athletics, the basketball-focused sportswear line overseen by FOG and adidas, has been in the works for upwards of two years so its launch deserved a substantial spotlight. On April 19, Fear of God founder Jerry Lorenzo found the perfect moment to finally reveal FOG Athletics: its star-studded, invite-only Eighth Collection runway show at the Hollywood Bowl.
Therein, Fear of God Athletics quietly debuted alongside Fear of God’s mainline fare. That it seamlessly slotted in amidst FOG’s mainline bouclé wool coats, cashmere pullovers, and washed leather pants indicated that FOG Athletics is intended to offer something more luxurious than a typical adidas partnership, recalling the strategy initially utilized by Kanye “Ye” West’s adidas YEEZY collection.
The question is, can FOG Athletics fill the expensive shoes left by the dissolution of adidas YEEZY in the wake of Ye’s anti-Semitic meltdown?
On one hand, adidas needs a brand to fill the YEEZY void.
Without Ye, adidas has a billion-dollar hole in its wallet — not even including leftover YEEZY stock — and is likely very interested in finding the next big-name collaborator to achieve what scrapped projects like adidas’ IVY PARK line couldn’t (money, hype, all that).
On the other hand, adidas and Fear of God’s Athletics line has been in the works since long before Ye decided to blame Jewish people for his problems, so it’s not likely that the sub-label’s focus would shift much in the interim.
Still, Fear of God Athletics does give shades of early adidas YEEZY SEASON collections and not just because it’s also extremely beige.
Like Ye’s adidas line, FOG Athletics debuted by way of a splashy runway show with lots of buzz and very little inside access — remember when YEEZY SEASON 3 debuted by way of an impromptu Life of Pablo concert at Madison Square Garden?
Fear of God’s Hollywood Bowl show was better organized than that, admittedly, but the communal vibe was similar.
Jerry Lorenzo’s mentor Ye was even in…
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