Yeezy – Source: Jonathan Leibson / Getty
Once again Adidas is selling more Yeezy designs and it isn’t sitting well with Kanye West who alleges that they’re “fake.”
During Super Bowl LVIII weekend, the rapper posted a picture of himself alongside Adidas CEO, Bjørn Gulden.
It’s no secret Adidas has been hurting financially after parting ways with Kanye over his antisemitic rhetoric, so it seemed as though he and the brand were back on better terms and possibly planning to reunite.
Despite the cordial photo, however, things are apparently tense between West and Adidas again over the Yeezy brand.
On Monday, several sneaker leakers sounded the alarm that Adidas would release new Yeezys soon and the New York Daily News reported that the sneaker brand did just that. Reps for Adidas told the publication that they’ve been working to “unload” about $1.3 billion worth of Yeezys since cutting ties with the rapper in October 2022.
With that in mind, they’ll be releasing the inventory over the course of this year in a manner that helps “ensure a fair and premium experience for consumers.”
Adidas plans to sell products from 2022 like some of the brand’s “most popular designs” and will donate some of the proceeds to groups fighting hate including antisemitism.
According to Kanye however, the new colorways released by the brand weren’t approved by him, and he’s accusing Adidas of “creative rape” while calling the sneakers “fake.”
“Anybody who loves Ye would not buy these fake Yeezys,” wrote Kanye on Instagram.” I never made these color ways, I’m not getting paid off of them and adidas is suing me. All these celebrities and the public will stand against a T-shirt or the color of my hat but when y’all see me have my children hidden from me or see an actual Fortune 500 company r*pe one of your heroes in real life don’t nobody say nothing or do nothin.”
He continued,
“As far as the system goes. What y’all gone do now take my album down again? Freeze my accounts again? Threaten people to not work with me again? All the new non approved 350’s are cooorny.”
Kanye was apparently so befuddled by the audacity of Adidas that he even uploaded a video so people could hear it from his mouth. In the video, he expanded on the brand reportedly suing him for $250 million and alleged that he’s not being paid for the new releases.
Love or hate Kanye West, we all can admit he is right about the 350 sneakers being outdated, and Adidas selling products not approved by him defeats the purpose of releasing them. Some fans are even alleging that Adidas lied about cutting ties with Kanye over his antisemitic remarks and think they were just cutting him out of the business.
With Anthony Edwards’ Adidas AE1s receiving such high praise, perhaps the brand should put all the focus on him.
