Kanye West told Bloomberg writer, Kim Bhashin, on Monday that he will not exit his corporate partnership contracts with Adidas and Gap. He intends to honour his obligations until they expire following a public disagreement in which he alleged that the companies were copying his designs.
The partnership between Yeezy, of which West owns 100%, and Gap is a contract due to run until 2030 while the Adidas/Yeezy contract is due to end in 2026. After this, West says he will “go it alone to make the new industry, no more companies standing between me and the audience.”
The Yeezy sneaker brand was originally launched with Nike in 2009 and then moved to Adidas in 2013. West currently earns an 11% royalty on all sneaker sales with Adidas but is currently renegotiating a 20% to benefit his four children. The relationship soured recently with West alleging that Adidas were copying his designs for the Yeezy slides, making frequent outbursts on Instagram – calling out Adidas for holding Yeezy Day 2022 without his consent.
West also alleges that Gap is copying designs for his Yeezy Gap “Engineered by Balenciaga” t-shirt line for their own lines. Images of the Gap tee side by side with the Yeezy-Gap Balenciaga collaboration were posted online and subsequently removed. The outbursts escalated recently with the rapper posting pictures of Adidas company executives and JP Morgan Chase (Yeezy-Gap) board members to his Instagram account.
West has since deleted all social media posts and maintains his relationship with both companies as conflicted but amicable, saying “they my new baby mamas. I guess we’re just going to have to coparent those 350’s.”
Lee Martin – Law Correspondent
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