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Kanye West Blasts Adidas Over Yeezy Day
Kanye West is calling out Adidas over Yeezy Day.
The annual two-day event kicked off today featuring restocks of past sneakers and new releases. But Ye reveals that the initiative, which began in 2019, was done without his approval.
In a DM sent to various outlets, Ye claimed the idea was not sanctioned by him. He also revealed that he did not approve of restocking certain colorways and styles and hiring of staff including a Yeezy general manager.
“adidas made up the Yeezy day idea without my approval then went and brought back older styles without my approval picked colors and named them without my approval went and hired people that worked for me without my approval,” he wrote, “stole my colorways without my approval stole my styles and material approaches without my approval went and hired a gm of Yeezy without my approval took talent on the production side and sprinkled them throughout adidas originals without my approval.”
Message from Ye regarding YEEZY DAY via @ChaseSeesGhosts. pic.twitter.com/cCZ93J2UrU
— Photos Of Ye (@PhotosOfKanye) August 2, 2022
He also alleges that Adidas hindered his Gap partnership. “Even though they did a Balenciaga collaboration they completely slowed down production on the shoes me and Demna developed for Gap by trying to bully Gap even though my contract states I can do casual shoes which I was doing when I did fashion shows.”
He went on to call out the sportswear giant for copying him with their $55 Adilette 22 slides, which bear a resemblance to his own Yeezy slides.
“When I originally ordered adidas to make more Yeezy slides the GM lied to my face and said they didn’t have the capacity meanwhile adidas was copying my slides and making their own version of the Yeezy slide Yeezy is 68% of adidas on line sales God step in.”
Despite all their success, Kanye has had a tumultuous relationship with Adidas. Last month, he called out the company’s CEO Kasper Rørsted for allegedly copying his Yeezy designs.
“To Kasper I’m not standing for this blatant copying no more,” he wrote. “These shoes represent the disrespect that people in power have to the talent.”
Ye launched his Yeezy partnership with Adidas in 2015 and retains 100% ownership of the brand. In 2020, sales for Yeezy sneakers reached nearly $1.7 billion in annual revenue and netted Yeezy $191 million in royalties.