Kanye West Leaves Nike, Partners With Adidas
Despite the massive anticipation for Kanye West's upcoming collaboration with Nike, the Air Yeezy II "Red Octobers," the shoe has been plagued by delays and an ever delayed street date. It seems as if Kanye West himself has gotten frustrated with Nike and has apparently severed ties with the shoe company.
West went on Hot 97's The Angie Martinez Show where 'Ye confirmed that he would be leaving Nike and addressed his bubbling frustrations with the company.
"[Nike] said, ok cool, we’re gonna give you a bigger sandbox to play in," Kanye said. "We’re gonna give you this amount right here to design, and two collections a year, and 30 skews — that’s the amount of items that you have. Would that make you happy, Kanye? And I said, well I need royalties. It’s not even like I have a joint venture. At least give me some royalties. Michael Jordan has 5%, that business is $2 billion. He makes a $100 million dollars a year off of 5% royalties. Nike told me we can’t give you royalties because you’re not a professional athlete. I told them, I go to the Garden and play one-on-NO-ONE. I’m a performance athlete. Did I really ANYTHING? YES! Did I really EVERYTHING. 100,000 percent. I’m 100,000 percent at all times. It’s people that work in offices trying to tell me how to think, when I got a better perspective. I live in Paris."
West also revealed that not only would he be leaving Nike but he took a deal with the one of the shoe company's chief rivals, adidas.
"So the old me, without a daughter, would have taken the Nike deal because I just love Nikes so much. But the new me, with a daughter, takes the adidas deal because I have royalties and I have to provide for my family," West said to Martinez.
You can watch a clip of the interview in the video above.
[Via MissInfo. tv]