Kanye West and Kim Kardashian to collaborate on shoe line?

As rumours of celebrity couple Kanye West and Kim Kardashian creating a high-end shoe line together swirl, one expert says the potential power of the brand is "huge".

BY Bibby Sowray | 13 August 2012

'Kimye' Photo: Rex

We're strangely intrigued by Kanye West and Kim Kardashian's relationship. First, they started to colour coordinate their outfits, then, before we knew it, West had former high-heel harlot Kardashian kicking around in his self-designed Nike 'Air Yeezy's' and re-wearing the same pair of leather trousers day after day where formerly she would have banished them to the 'do not wear' pile after one public outing.

So, as news reaches us that the publicity-perfect pair is rumoured to be designing a shoe range together we're even more intrigued. Last week, Radaronline.com reported that 'Kimye' had met with Francois-Henri Pinault, CEO of PPR, which owns brands like Alexander McQueen, Gucci and Louis Vuitton, to discuss the possibility of starting up a high-end collection with his backing.

READ: Kim Kardashian debuts Kanye West's £3,681 shoes - in a go kart

Surprisingly, both already have experience in the shoe world (aside just wearing lots of expensive designer pairs) so this isn't such an unexpected revelation. Kardashian co-founded ecommerce site shoedazzle.com in 2009 and it's already raised $60 million in venture capital, while West has designed the aforementioned sell out 'Air Yeezy II' trainers for Nike as well as creating the shoes for Dion Lee's Resort 2013 collection and collaborating with Guiseppe Zanotti to produce (some rather ugly) £3,691 shoes for his own, poorly-received fashion label , which Kardashian just happens to wear quite often.

The rumoured shoe line has even got experts excited. "The potential is huge. They are both brand names that have separately sold millions of dollars worth of product. Kim knows the shoe [industry] and it makes a lot of sense. This could be a case of one plus one equals three," Howard Bragman vice chairman of Reputation.com and a longtime Hollywood publicist told WWD .

Whilst we know Kanye West packs some power when it comes to getting backing from designers - Givenchy's Riccardo Tisci art directed West and Jay-Z's recent 'Watch the Throne Tour' and he's pally with numerous other big name designers - Kim Kardashian is the poster girl for mainstream commercialism and is unloved by the high-fashion world - she was reportedly banned from this year's Met Ball by Anna Wintour - making for two very conflicting fashion personas. So could this collaboration really work if it does come to fruition? We'll have to wait and see. One thing's for sure, it's going to make things very awkward if they break up.