Kanye West hands out free sneakers to paparazzi

Rapper Kanye West has made good on a promise to deliver free pairs of his highly-coveted Yeezy sneakers to the paparazzi.

The Stronger hitmaker has clashed with the photographers who follow his every move in the past, but he has made more of an effort to get along with the snappers in the past year, and in November (15), Kanye revealed he would be rewarding some of his favourite cameramen with free shoes.

He has since followed through with his vow, after having boxes of his limited edition Adidas Yeezy sneakers, which retail at $200 a pair, handed out to freelance members of the paparazzi in Los Angeles earlier this week (begs22Aug16), reports TMZ.com.

One snapper shared a shot of the surprise delivery on Instagram, posting an image of four shoe boxes, each labelled with the chosen photographer's names.

The kind gesture marks a big change in Kanye's attitude, after he was sentenced to probation, anger management classes, and community service for a misdemeanour battery charge in 2013, when he allegedly punched snapper Daniel Ramos and wrestled him to the ground at Los Angeles International Airport. The incident was removed from the hip-hop star's criminal record in May (16) after completing his punishment.

Meanwhile, Kanye also had more than 100 pairs of Yeezys sent out to lucky fans who had correctly guessed the name of his latest album. He offered up the shoes as prizes in February (16) after announcing he had changed the name of his long-awaited project, days before its debut at a listening party and fashion show event in New York City.

He referred to the new music by the acronym T.L.O.P., and those who successfully guessed it was called The Life of Pablo were finally rewarded with sneakers this month (Aug16).