Despite all of Kanye West’s money, fame, and attention on behalf of German sportswear giant Adidas, it is no secret that their relationship is rocky as ever. Now, it looks that the three stripes and Ye are dealing with yet another difficulty, this time related to the much-touted Yeezy Day 2022. The creative mastermind went to Instagram to formally assert that the annual Yeezy Day was included without his knowledge.
Everything you need to know about the Kanye West x Yeezy Day 2022 saga
On August 2, 2022, Kanye West sent a direct message to many media sites, including Complex. In the statement, he rants about the countless goods released to the market without his consent, including Yeezy Day. He went on to write about numerous other concerns he’s had with the company and specifically mentioned this one in his direct IG message. Yeezy Day 2022 is the third year in which the Adidas label has celebrated the holiday. However, the DM made it plain that Kanye was not there for the festivities.
“Adidas created the Yeezy day concept without consulting me. Then they went and brought back outdated designs without my permission.”
It doesn’t end there; he claims that a variety of aspects, including hues, shoe names, and the staff participating in the project, were not authorized by him.
“(Adidas) chose and designated colors without my consent, and recruited individuals to work with me without my approval.”
Kanye West’s rage didn’t end there, as he accused the three stripes of stealing his creative brilliance work for their advantage and distributing his ideas across Adidas Originals merchandise.
“(Adidas) stole my colorways without my permission, stole my styles and materials without my permission, recruited a Yeezy GM without my permission, and took talent on the production side and scattered them across Adidas Originals.”
He goes on to discuss his Yeezy slide rip-off. When West first requested the firm to release additional Yeezy slides, they rejected, claiming that manufacturing was at maximum capacity, and subsequently began releasing the adilettes.
Kanye West speaks on Yeezy Day
“Adidas made up the Yeezy Day idea without my approval.” 👀😬 pic.twitter.com/ATQsfRF1W3— No Jumper (@nojumper) August 2, 2022
“When I first asked Adidas to manufacture additional Yeezy slides, the GM lied to me and stated they didn’t have the capacity, while Adidas was duplicating my slides and creating their own version of the Yeezy slide.”
Kanye West also spoke about his continuing, very successful collaborations with Balenciaga and Gap. He stated that the three-stripe label hampered the manufacture of casual shoes designed for the Gap by him and Demna Gvasalia, Balenciaga’s Creative Director. Kanye West said he did not violate his contract with the three stripes while working on casual sneakers with Balenciaga and Gap. However, the three-stripe branding forced Gap to believe so.
“Even though they had a Balenciaga collaboration, they totally held down production on the shoes Demna and I made for Gap by attempting to intimidate Gap, despite the fact that my contract stipulates I may produce casual shoes, which I did when I performed fashion shows.”
For those unaware, Yeezy Day is a yearly event in which the German sportswear giant re-releases numerous popular models from Kanye West’s Yeezy line for two consecutive days, as well as many new GRs on the official e-commerce sites of CONFIRMED and the Yeezy Supply. Given that the company only produces a limited number of each Yeezy release, the event resulted in a large increase in sales and a new level of publicity for Adidas’ CONFIRMED app, which competes with Nike’s SNKRS app. The Utility Black Yeezy 450 was released at 10 a.m. ET on August 2, 2022, to kick off this year’s Yeezy Day.
