Why Has Yeezy Only Now Joined Instagram?

Where were you on July 21st 2022? If you happened to be at home, scrolling through Instagram, chances are you spotted a new, official Yeezy account pop up on your feed. Making its debut in video form, the initial post saw two Yeezy x Gap Engineered By Balenciaga-clad figures making a transaction at a rather minimalist-looking till point, whilst brown noise played softly in the background.

The video accompanied the news that the collection would be dropping in Gap stores in the US – initially at a “reengineered” flagship store in Times Square, and then later across the country. This follows the news that Ye’s team recently filed a trademark application that hinted at the possible opening of YZY SPLY stores, and suggests that bricks and mortar locations are very much within the rapper’s future plans.

Whilst we have no doubt that Ye will make these stores an experience, and there will most likely be Supreme-style queues for miles, the move into physical stores seems an interesting one given the current retail landscape. E-commerce is still booming – the pre-order traffic and sell-out Yeezys prove that this is case, whereas the high street has been struggling even before the pandemic. Even Gap itself announced that it would be closing 350 stores throughout America by 2023, with the goal of having a smaller, ‘healthier’ fleet. Balenciaga, too, recently opened a store focused on its couture offering, which arrived shortly after its show in Paris.

But what’s even more noteworthy is the presence that a physical store holds given both brands’ penchant for elusiveness. Having an actualised, bricks-and-mortar location contrasts so heavily with the online presence of both Yeezy and Balenciaga, and, more recently – Ye and Demna themselves. Unless a store can offer something exceptional, in terms of experience or product, it’s hard to create an experience that matches the same feeling. So, what does it take for a brand to remain elusive in the digital age, and is it actually beneficial? We’re about to find out.

Ye’s relationship with fame can be described as complicated at best, and when it comes to maintaining an aura of elusiveness around your brand, this can make things difficult. Known for being particularly outspoken, Ye’s affairs are rarely out of the news cycle. From stints in hospitals to an incredibly public divorce from Kim Kardashian, perhaps it’s unsurprising that Kanye often tries to separate the art from the artist. Throughout his career, we’ve seen Ye do this in a number of ways, from creating a physical barrier from the outside world through his use of masks (which dates way back to his 2014 YEEZUS tour), to simplifying his name.

Both are moves that Demna also mirrored shortly after. Balenciaga’s FW22 show notes even reflected this – they stated that going forward, Demna would only go by his first name in order to “distinguish an artist title from birth name, therefore separating work from personal life.” Masks have also featured heavily in both artists’ looks over the past year or so: Demna creative directed the mask-clad DONDA rollout, and Balenciaga’s most recent couture collection offered up a slick face covering that was engineered by AMG Mercedes.

Over the past couple of months, Ye has actually managed to stay out of the spotlight, but historically, he’s never really been one to shy away from social media – in fact, he’s well known for doing exactly the opposite. His Instagram and Twitter rants have landed him in hot water on many occasions, and he’s even found himself banned from both platforms before too. Yeezy, on the other hand, has never had its own brand account until now, and has always relied on fan accounts to break news and preview products. This has helped to maintain a certain level of mystique – it means that until a launch is officially confirmed by Ye’s partner adidas (or Balenciaga, in the case of Yeezy Gap) everything is only a rumour. It’s a move that gets people guessing, keeps them talking, and subsequently drives hype, all whilst relying on and increasing the strength of the community around the brand.

When Bottega Veneta deactivated its social accounts at the start of 2021, it seemed like a bold move. Quickly deemed to be a publicity stunt, Kering Group CEO François-Henri Pinault later told WWD that Bottega had decided to “lean much more on ambassadors and fans by giving them the material they need to talk about the brand through various social networks, by letting them speak for the brand rather than doing it itself.” In simple terms, the brand had chosen to rely solely on its influencer strategy and the community behind it – the latter being something that Yeezy was already way ahead with. Given everything we know about hype culture and the drop model, it comes as no surprise that opting for a more mysterious image can help a brand drum up more demand. A certain level of inaccessibility works to make products feel more scarce, in turn making them more desirable.

On the other hand, running a brand account can also have its own advantages when it comes to maintaining an elusive look and feel. Balenciaga is notorious for this, repeatedly deleting its entire feed and only posting collections at a time, and therefore only giving away exactly as much information as it wants the customer to know. For brands, this is a way to control the narrative, whilst managing to encourage just enough conversation and excitement each time they make a calculated move.

Given the friendship and creative similarities between Demna and Ye, we wouldn’t be surprised to see the Yeezy account employ the same tactics. For a brand like Yeezy, where its entire existence revolves around Kanye, the decision to introduce a calculated brand account is pretty strategic. Firstly, amongst the rumours that Ye could be leaving adidas, the presence of the Yeezy brand allows it to have some control over the conversation, and, if the rumours are true, have an existing platform for the evolved brand. Secondly, while Ye’s followers will pretty much back him through any controversy (and there have been many) there are plenty of examples where having an outspoken CEO or brand face has had a negative effect on companies, from tanking stock prices to full-on boycotts. Therefore, a heavily, curated, professionally run account allows Ye to once again create a barrier between his personality and his art.

In such a competitive industry, brands are always looking for different ways to connect with their audiences, and have employed just about every tactic under the sun to do so. From creating organic-style content on TikTok to utilising user-generated content on their socials, the emphasis on brand communities is stronger than ever. By remaining elusive on Instagram, are brands doing the complete opposite?

Not exactly. Just because a brand isn’t focused on Instagram doesn’t mean they’re not connecting with the consumer in other ways. In fact, the “reengineered” flagship concept actually provides a physical touchpoint for the consumer to connect and interact with the brands, although a one-off experience like this doesn’t quite compare to the constant stream of communication that a strong online presence offers us. Additionally, brands like Balenciaga have always been innovative when it comes to creating more interactive experiences, having been one of the first to venture into the metaverse. And sure enough, just a day after the Yeezy Instagram surfaced, a Yeezy mobile videogame appeared, allowing users to play their own characters whilst decked out in Yeezy Gap clothing.

As customers, we expect companies to have an Instagram account as standard – they provide a glimpse into the brands we love, fill our feeds with aspirational imagery and give us a feeling that we’re connected to them in some way. It’s unlikely that brand accounts will really ever go away, it’s just very clear that some brands are choosing to focus their energies elsewhere right now. For brands such as Yeezy and Demna’s Balenciaga, innovation has always been key, and irony has always set the undertone. Whilst most brands are changing the way they use social media to engage their audiences, companies like Yeezy and Balenciaga are actually using it in a way that audiences actually don’t want to see – too perfect, too filtered, too curated. It’s a move that leaves us constantly wanting more from the brands, wanting to know more about their directors, their processes and their thoughts.

In the social media sphere, we’re often encouraged to be less of all these things, and that’s a concept that brands have cottoned on to as well. Most brands are quick to connect with their social audience – customer service reps are at the end of DMs, accounts regularly run Q&As, and it’s the first place a marketing team will post in response to a PR crisis. There’s been a huge emphasis placed on transparency, and now we expect everything to be on-demand, content to come at our convenience, and to be let in to feel like a part of something. But if the brand itself isn't accessible, why should its social media be?

Want more streetwear content? Why not check out: