By: Anthony Riquelmy, September 28, 2022
If you’re not familiar with celebrity news, for the past few weeks, Kanye West has been feuding with his shoe partner, Adidas, and everyone on social media is talking about it. Kanye West has announced he will be leaving Adidas and Gap once their contracts expire in the next few years and it seems that he will not be re-signing with them.
It all started June 13 when Kanye took to his instagram account to call out the Adidas brand for releasing its Adilette 22 sandals. Kanye had a problem with this because the sandals bear a resemblance to West’s sandal, the Yeezy slide. West said in a now deleted instagram post in August that the sandals are basically an Adidas released knockoff of his YEEZY slide. The release of the Adilette 22 sandal is just one of a series of problems that Kanye has with Adidas.
Adidas has made many moves without Kanye’s approval, including releasing new colorways, or different shades of the Yeezy brand of shoes, according to Via Forbes. Adidas has also hired new personnel for the Yeezy board without West’s approval. There has even been speculation that Adidas has been deceptive to West in order to place more priority into their own products, and less to the YEEZY line.
West commented on this by stating, “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.”
West justifies his frustration and dissatisfaction with Adidas by claiming, “Yeezy is 68% of Adidas online sales.”
Kanye has directly blamed board member and Senior Vice President of Adidas, Daniel Cherry. West has repeatedly mocked Cherry with nicknames like “Daniel Cherry Pop” and has repeatedly posted pictures/memes of Cherry on his instagram.
Kanye’s dissatisfaction with the Gap brand has been as apparent as his dissatisfaction with Adidas. In an instagram post, West has stated, “Gap having meetings about me without me, Adidas releasing old shoes and coloring my shoes like I’m dead, me not having a say on where my children go to school. Call me whatever you want, if you don’t understand why I will not back down on my businesses, my brands, and my children then you’re the ones who are crazy.”
Throughout all the news and drama, Kanye’s fans have expressed their feelings and supported him, with many asking for a list of all the unapproved YEEZY items, so that they can boycott those items.
Kanye has expressed that he will leave both Adidas and Gap once the contracts with both companies expire, with the Gap deal ending in 2030 and the Adidas deal ending in 2026. For now everyone will have to sit back and see if he stays true to his word, and follow this developing story as it unfolds.
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