Kanye West Is At War With Adidas Over Yeezy Brand
In a series of Instagram posts, Kanye West has aired out his rift with Adidas over the Yeezy brand, claiming the company offered a $1 million buyout.
Ye's Yeezy x Adidas reign may soon come to a close. Over the weekend, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, went to Instagram to blast his feud with the design company, claiming that Adidas plagiarized his designs and even offered him a $1 billion buyout. A member of Adidas that the Donda 2 rapper has specifically gone after is Senior Vice President and General Manager Daniel Cherry III, alleging that Cherry unveiled Yeezy products without his permission.
Fans of the 24-time-winning Grammy Award winner have noticed that non-Yeezy designs like adiFOM Q and the Adilette 22 resemble the Yeezy Foam Runner and Yeezy Slide, respectively.
“The fact [adidas] felt they could color my shoes and name them without my approval is really wild,” Ye wrote in an Instagram post. He added, “I really care about building something that changes the world and something I can leave to my kids. They tried to buy me out for 1 billion dollars [USD]. My royalties next year are 500 million dollars [USD] alone.”
In a follow-up post, Ye said he's looking for a shoe company that will give him "control" making him "head of the board" and "chief decision maker." Afterwards, he shared a screenshot to San Antonio Shoemakers Wikipedia page, accompanied with a smiley face in the caption.
Ye's beef with Adidas began in August after the company launched brand-created sale Yeezy Day.
“adidas made up the Yeezy Day idea without my approval,” the rapper, producer and mogul wrote at the time. “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 stole my colorways without my approval stole my styles and material approached without my approval and hired a GM of Yeezy without my approval.”
In support of Ye, on Monday (September 5) Swizz Beatz called for an Adidas boycott on Instagram with a post of fake black and orange Yeezys with a red 'X' drawn through them.
“I usually mind my business but this is DEAD WRONG! If we let them do this to @kanyewest it will happen to us also! This man created this groundbreaking innovation and it should be respected as a creative !" Swizz wrote in the caption. “YE is only asking for his work to be respected and not stolen that’s not crazy to me !! We not buying these !!!!!!!!!!!! @adidas you’re supposed to be original do the correct thing please !!!”