Could Kanye Be Calling For an End to His adidas Partnership?

When Ye (formally known as Kanye West) left Nike back in 2013, he didn’t exactly go quietly. Having got into a spat over royalties, the rapper publicly called out the Swoosh brand’s CEO, Mark Parker, alongside half of the fashion industry before later announcing his move to adidas, under the guise of providing for his family. Now, it seems that Ye may be ready to turn his back on the Three Stripes too - as he’s taken to Instagram to call them out for copying his designs, releasing colourways he hasn’t approved, and for hiring ex DC Comics General Manager Daniel Cherry “without his knowledge.”

This recent episode of keeping up with Kanye is just the latest in a long line of social posts that gave us a little too much insight into Ye’s business. In the same series of rants, Ye also called out GAP execs for (you guessed it) copying his designs, and his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian for not letting him have a say in where his kids would go to school. This all took place through a variety of notes app screenshots, memes, and eventually screengrabs of adidas executive’s profiles - complete with photographs and roles.

Although Ye’s erratic social presence is nothing new, the stakes seemed to be higher than ever before. In the scathing posts directed towards Cherry, Ye told the adidas VP “I guarantee you’ll have to relocate before I’m legally finished with you,” before then turning his attention to lawyer Ekwhan Rhow, after claiming that adidas had hired him to change the contract, and telling the German giant that it would cost “billions to let him go.” With rumours circulating that adidas has offered to buy Ye out and that the relationship could be heading towards an end, we assess all the evidence so far that the artist could be looking to leave the Three Stripes for good.

Since signing the deal back in 2014, the collaborative effort has been a staple of the sneaker scene, bringing a number of game-changing styles to the masses, but over the past year or so things have been looking a little rocky for adidas x Yeezy. Though he’s publicly called out Nike on many occasions, Ye was spotted once again sporting the Swoosh a number of times in 2021 and proclaimed that he’d wear Jordans until he was on the board at adidas. Shortly after, he was spotted in a pair of Comme des Garcons x Nike Air Foamposites, and later donned Swoosh socks at his DONDA listening party. Furthermore, in one of his most recent outbursts, Ye posted a picture of some Martine Rose x Nike Air Monarchs - not only fuelling more rumours of a potential move but also seemingly giving the Nike collaborator his stamp of approval in her race to become Virgil Abloh’s successor at Louis Vuitton. Needless to say, each event had Yeezy fans wondering if Ye was looking to move back to Nike, but unless his adidas contract directly states that he can’t wear a product by a competitor brand, we wouldn’t read into this too much. Though not a competitor, Ye has been decked out in Balenciaga for most of the year, as well as donning some chunky Red Wing boots on occasion too - personal style, it seems, still prevails.

While that’s obviously not enough evidence to point towards ending the partnership, what happened next certainly caused a stir. Having come across adidas’ Adilette Slides, Ye once again took to Instagram, accusing the brand of selling “fake Yeezys made by adidas themselves.” Ye maintained that the design was a direct copy of his hugely successful Yeezy Slides, and felt that the Three Stripes had taken advantage of him. The accusations came at a time when this subject was particularly sensitive within the sneaker world: Vans had just sued Tyga and MSCHF over their collaborative “Wavy Baby” sneaker, and New Balance had waged war on Steve Madden for copying its 327 model. It also wasn’t the first time Ye had gone after a brand for infringing on his IP - he’d previously taken legal action against Walmart for copying his Foam Runner, but the fact that he was going after adidas so publicly was enough to get people talking. If you look at the slides, you’ll actually notice a number of differences between the adidas pair and the Yeezy pair. Not only is the adidas style textured, but they also feature a completely different sole unit, with the jagged outsole being a key design detail on Ye’s version.

Releasing toned-down versions of their most successful, top-of-the-range silhouettes is a pretty standard practice for brands, and it’s actually something adidas has done on a number of occasions before. Cast your mind back to 2016 and you’ll remember that it dropped the Tubular Doom and Tubular Shadow - inspired by the Yeezy 750 and 350 silhouettes, and in more recent years, the Ozelia, which happens to look a little like the 700 V3. It’s not the only brand that does this either - other examples include Converse, which has a habit of doing so, and Nike: the AM90 Terrascape was widely recognised to have an Abloh-style influence.

The timing of this call out, alongside the fact that this never seems to have been an issue before, did suggest that there could be trouble in paradise, and this was only set to worsen with Ye’s next move. As Slide season slipped away, adidas turned its focus to Yeezy Day, which since 2019, has been its annual celebration of all things Yeezy. The two-day event is usually the perfect chance for Kanye fans to get their hands on some of the rarest silhouettes going, as well as new colourways of fan-favourite models that haven’t been released yet, only this year there was one issue - Kanye claimed that he hadn’t approved the concept.

Again, the idea that Ye had not approved the event had never been an issue until this year, although 2022’s event was set to see a restock of one of the most sought-after Yeezys ever: the Yeezy Boost 350 “Turtle Dove”. In a message to Complex, Ye wrote that adidas had not only created the day, but also brought back older styles and created and named new colourways without his approval. In the same breath, he accused adidas of delaying the production of shoes that he and Balenciaga Creative Director, Demna, had designed for the duo’s GAP collaboration, saying that adidas had bullied GAP into not releasing the shoes, even though it was stated in Kanye’s contract that he was allowed to work on casual shoes elsewhere. The event went ahead, yet the “Turtle Dove” was never released to the UK and Europe, causing fans to speculate that there was some truth to the story.

The plot thickens further when you consider the other projects Ye has been involved in this year. In June, the artist announced Donda Sports, a separate sports marketing agency under Ye’s Donda umbrella of projects. The idea behind Donda Sports was to provide holistic support to athletes during and beyond their sports career, and included in this offering was a full-service sports brand, which was set to include apparel, sneakers and accessories. Although Ye’s sporting adventures under adidas have never exactly been successful (his original basketball shoes were rumoured to have been banned by the NBA) had Ye wanted another attempt to break into the sporting market, adidas’ existing roster of talent would surely have allowed him to do so, so the idea that there could be some kind of creative differences there doesn’t seem to be too far-fetched.

Couple this with Yeezy starting its own brand Instagram, its recent trademark filings for YZY SPLY stores, shoes, apparel and accessories, and Ye’s bid to extend the Donda universe by appointing footwear designer Steven Smith as Head of Industrial Design, and it does appear that the mogul is attempting to break away from the adidas and Yeezy partnership as we know it. In addition, friend and collaborator Demna also hinted that Ye’s GAP partnership was always intended to be a flexible arrangement. Speaking to The New York Times, the Balenciaga designer said that the Yeezy x GAP Engineered by Balenciaga collaboration was just a starting point for Ye, and alluded to the idea that the three-way collab could set the tone for future collabs to come, allowing each party to have more creative freedom outside of long-term contracts.

Though Ye hasn’t quite let GAP off the hook either, it's clear that his wrath is still more focussed on the Three Stripes. Although he’s meant to be contracted until 2026, according to Ye’s posts, adidas offered him $1 billion to buy him out, though Ye argued that his royalties next year are likely to be $500 million alone.

Going back to his current rant, the artist has successfully managed to rile up his fanbase enough for them to begin asking which colourways he hasn’t approved, which could easily affect sales if enough fans play along. While tanking sales is one way to provoke a response, the idea calls into question the whole morality of the situation. As industry figures have rightfully pointed out, adidas is the company that actually hires the designers, developers, and staff that play a part in the process, the company that pays their way, and (subject to contract) most likely has technical ‘ownership’ of the designs. Realistically, this is bigger than Kanye, and it seems that there are a lot of workers who are somewhat caught in the crossfire here - not to mention those that are now subject to online abuse by hoards of dedicated fans.

In 2021, Ye and adidas’ partnership was worth an estimated $1.7 Billion, which begs the question - what more could Ye really want from this? Without adidas’ knowledge and infrastructure, Ye would never have been able to scale his brand up to the level we know it to be, yet now he most likely has the resources and contacts to do so. As we wrote this, Ye called out for a sneaker brand that would put him on the board, but if he does have the resources to start his own venture, it would give him much more free reign without the restrictions that come with working with a major company. Whether that is his next move is yet to be seen, but be sure to keep it locked to The Sole Supplier to find out what’s next.

In other Yeezy news, Ye's latest Yeezy GAP Engineered by Balenciaga campaign takes a dark turn.