The partnership between Ye and adidas started shortly after the mogul left Nike in 2013, although the collaborators didn’t release their first shoe until two years later. At the time, Ye’s then-manager, Scooter Braun, managed to score him a “licensing deal,” where adidas could use Ye’s name to make and distribute products. According to Forbes, Ye would receive 15% royalties, plus a marketing fee. The New York Times recently reported that Ye’s earnings were actually closer to 5%.
However, in 2019 Bloomberg reported that the partnership was more of a “profit-sharing agreement than a typical licensing deal,” acknowledging that Ye and his team would have “complete control over the designs, whilst adidas would handle fulfillment and production.” That all sounds fairly simple and recognises Ye as the creative behind the Yeezy brand. So, in theory, any copies made would be an infringement on Ye’s design.
Despite Ye’s claims, there are obvious differences between the Yeezy and adidas products. A quick glance at the Adilette Slide shows that although the shoe takes on a sculpted, one-piece design with a similarly thick midsole, the geometric detailing and flatter sole render it different enough to not be the “Fake Yeezy” Ye suggests it is. Similarly, the upcoming Foam Runner-style shoe appears to encase a sock-type liner, distinguishing it from the original. And although these similarities are frustrating, we’re actually ignoring the fact that this sort of thing happens all the time.
Thanks to the prolific rise of Instagram accounts like Diet Prada , fashion fans and designers alike are now much quicker, and more likely to call out what they believe to have been copied. Though this can sometimes do more harm than good (depending on how far of a reach the products actually are) it has helped to highlight some instances of brands taking advantage of their creatives. In a particularly blurry case, Converse was accused of ripping off its own JW Anderson collaboration with the launch of their own version of the Run Star Hike, which originally debuted at JW Anderson’s Fashion Week Show in 2019. Here, the designer was left out of the picture and the same shoe was added to Converse’s main line. Converse later sued Steve Madden for copying the very same design in 2020.
Whilst the above example focuses on a specific silhouette, it’s not uncommon for brands to work in similar-looking versions of their bestsellers into their collections, as adidas has done here. In fact, way back in 2016, adidas released the Tubular Doom and Tubular Shadow; both were clearly inspired by the Yeezy 750 and 350 silhouettes, respectively. Then, there’s the Ozelia, which isn’t a massive stretch from the 700V3. In a similar move, Nike recently dropped the AM90 Terrascape, which bore a striking resemblance to Virgil Abloh’s take on the model, as well as a number of Blazers that featured a Jumbo Swoosh – another design cue from the late collaborator.
