It’s official: Kanye West is partnering up with adidas for a range of sneakers and apparel. It’s unclear at the time of writing just how deep the partnership will run, but keep in mind one of Kanye’s main goals in making this move was to be able to consistently put out product. The info comes from a recent interview with Hot 97′s Angie Martinez, in which Kanye expressed displeasure at not receiving any royalties from the Air Yeezy. Apparently the new adidas partnership involves royalties paid for Kanye, which was a big part of the allure.
Of course this move calls into question the fate of the “Red October” Yeezy 2-it would be sort of an awkward move for Nike to put the shoe out now that West is an official partner of adidas, especially given his slightly disparaging remarks towards Nike CEO Mark Parker and the Nike machine at large. Keep in mind that this team up will not fall under the adidas Y-3 umbrella as was rumored and falsely reported by some in the frenzy of the past week (Although there does seem to be merit to the adidas YEEZi name). Let us know in the comments what you’re predicting for the Kanye West x adidas project and stay tuned with Sneaker News for updates as the product starts to show and adidas decides to inform the public of the partnership and the details.
via Miss Info
So then I start turning up in the BBC interview, so [Nike] said, ok cool, we’re gonna give you a bigger sandbox to play in. We’re gonna give you this amount right here to design, and two collections a year, and 30 skews — that’s the amount of items that you have. Would that make you happy, Kanye? And I said, well I need royalties. It’s not even like I have a joint venture. At least give me some royalties. Michael Jordan has 5%, that business is $2 billion. He makes a $100 million dollars a year off of 5% royalties. Nike told me we can’t give you royalties because you’re not a professional athlete. I told them, I go to the Garden and play one-on-NO-ONE. I’m a performance athlete. Did I really ANYTHING? YES! Did I really EVERYTHING. 100,000 percent. I’m 100,000 percent at all times. It’s people that work in offices trying to tell me how to think, when I got a better perspective. I live in Paris.
So the old me, without a daughter, would have taken the Nike deal because I just love Nikes so much. But the new me, with a daughter, takes the adidas deal because I have royalties and I have to provide for my family.
Image: bshigeta