Everything Kanye West Is Saying About Adidas Right Now

So, it’s been a wild weekend. Especially if you’re Adidas CEO Kasper Rørsted, Adidas Senior Vice President Daniel Cherry, or just about anybody with some measure of influence at Adidas. Kanye West is pissed. He believes he’s lost control of Yeezy footwear and that high-ranking officials are making decisions about the line without his input. Furthermore, and perhaps even more damning, Kanye is accusing Adidas of flat-out stealing his designs, with recent non-Yeezy Adidas footwear like the adiFOM Q and the Adilette 22 bearing close resemblance to his products.

Now, the proverbial stuff has hit the fan and Kanye is saying that he wants out of his Adidas contract due to what he believes is a breach. Adidas isn’t commenting on the matter as of yet, but Kanye has vowed to keep commenting until he gets his desired resolution. The options appear to be between more money and power at Adidas or a breakup with the company that helped him reach billionaire status. Kanye is under contract with Adidas until 2026, so the end of this dispute may not be imminent.

In the meantime, here’s a rundown of everything Kanye West is saying about Adidas right now.

Kasper Rørsted, Adidas CEO

Once again, Kanye is going after the CEO of a major footwear brand. Much like he did with former Nike CEO Mark Parker in 2013 and the years that followed, Kanye is now sending shots at Adidas CEO Kasper Rørsted. He posted this mock New York Times cover “announcing” Rørsted’s death on Sep. 1. Last month, it was announced that Rørsted will be stepping down from his position in 2023.

Daniel Cherry, Adidas SVP

Many of Kanye’s anti-Adidas posts have been directed toward Daniel Cherry, the new Senior Vice President and General Manager of Adidas. Kanye believes Cherry, a newcomer to Adidas after making the jump from DC Comics earlier this year, is the primary person making decisions for Yeezy footwear without his approval. He also hates Cherry’s hat A LOT.

Adidas Supervisory Board Members

In addition to Rørsted and Cherry, Kanye has been posting headshots of various members of Adidas’ Supervisory board throughout the weekend. After the images were originally posted with aggressive captions and removed by Instagram (according to Kanye), they were reposted with sarcastically positive captions.

Billions

He says that whether Adidas keeps him or lets him go, it’s going to cost the company billions of dollars. Not a single billion—billions. Additionally, he doesn’t plan on waiting the 7 months that were apparently outlined in a breach letter he sent to the company—he wants out immediately.

Unapproved

Here, Kanye makes some pretty big business-related claims about Adidas. First, he says the company tried to buy him out of his contract for $1 billion, which was apparently declined because he’s set to earn $500 million in royalties alone next year. Next, he states that Cherry is making $2 million annually and a double-down of a previous claim that Yeezy accounts for 68% of Adidas’ online sales. Beyond the numbers, Kanye once again states that Adidas is creating Yeezy colorways and naming them without his approval.

'The List'

With Kanye saying that Yeezys and Yeezy colorways are being released without his approval, some of his fans are now asking for a list of the Yeezys that he did approve of so that they can support those pairs instead.

Back to Nike?

To really shake Adidas up, Kanye is now posting the competition’s sneakers in the form of Martine Rose’s Nike Air Monarch collaboration.

15%

Kanye against makes it clear that he doesn’t plan on working with Cherry, “Daniel Son” in this case, and says that he’s walking out the door with his 15% royalty intact.

Head of Adidas

Is this entire ordeal Kanye’s way of voicing displeasure for not being considered to fill influential positions at Adidas? In the past, he’s expressed a strong desire to be named Creative Director of Adidas. Thus far, it doesn’t appear that the company has given him any serious consideration for a title beyond his current role of collaborator. Here, he puts himself as the ‘Head of Adidas’ in a hypothetical scenario and makes sure to extend a warning to one of his other partners—GAP.

Civil War

Fully embracing meme culture, Kanye shares a Marvel-inspired Adidas Civil War graphic that depicts him and his Yeezy designs against Cherry and Adidas sneakers that some perceive to be Yeezy ripoffs.