An Americana icon, Maine's L.L. Bean has been outfitting dudes since the brand began in 1912. The icon of the brand's success, its signature "Bean Boot"—the standard bearer for duck boots—is selling faster than ever, but is it because of Kanye West's Yeezy 950 boot?
Before we dig into the never-ending menswear influence of Yeezus, the Bean Boot has a yearly demand purely on its own merits. In December of last year, the boots had a waitlist over 100,000 names long, and while L.L. Bean tried to produce more this year to keep up with the increased demand, it's currently out of select styles—and it's not even Halloween yet. Sure, the fact that the boots are all handmade in Maine doesn't help when there's a product shortage, but that certainly can't hurt the boot's consumer appeal either.
But let's not ignore the one-man hype machine that is Kanye West. After debuting his first Yeezy Season collection back in February 2015, the military/Americana-inspired collection included a piece that resembled L.L. Bean's classic silhouette. There's no doubt that he's reintroduced the boot silhouette to audiences that normally wouldn't be caught dead in anything associated with Americana.
As an L.L. Bean spokesperson told Quartz, "The past few years, we’ve noticed a huge surge in popularity of the boots amongst high-school and college students, folks living in urban environments, and they’ve garnered favor with the fashion community as well." Considering that the even the recent Yeezy Season 2 presentation included a new crop of colors for West's take on the Americana classic, it's hard to deny his impact on showcasing the boot to a more streetwear audience. Is the link definite? That's hard to say. But are the two boots connected? Absolutely.
If you're looking to cop a pair of OG Bean Boots, head over to L.L. Bean sooner rather than later. But if you're interested in West's take on the duck boot, then you'll have to wait until the Yeezy Season 1 collection drops later in October.
