After many rumors, it’s now official, Kanye West broke his contract with Nike and signed a partnership with adidas for a clothing line and a sneakers collection at his name. After several attacks on Nike CEO Mark Parker concerning the payment of royalties, Kanye announced on New York radio Hot 97 that his choice will goes to the brand with the three stripes.
A choice that seems consistent with the recent adidas repositioning in “pret-à-porter” market and should be confirmed by adidas through a statement in the coming days. Needless to say, the Nike Air Yeezy ‘Red October’ may never see the day.
“o then I start turning up in the BBC interview, so [Nike] said, ok cool, we’re gonna give you a bigger sandbox to play in. 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.
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.”
EHKG 