Kanye West has accused Adidas of inventing Yeezy Day without his permission.
Yeezy Day, which falls on 2 August every year, is the annual day in which Adidas releases some of its most anticipated Yeezy sneakers.
Complex published a number of messages reportedly sent by West to the publication’s main Instagram account. In them, West, who legally changed his name to Ye last year, made multiple accusations regarding Adidas and Yeezy, his fashion collaboration.
“Adidas made up the Yeezy Day idea without my approval,” Ye wrote (via Complex) in a long message, while also accusing the brand of re-issuing older Adidas Yeezy styles, designing Yeezy colorways, and hiring employees for the line – including the general manager of Yeezy – without his approval.
He also brought up the incident when he accused Adidas of making “a fake Yeezy” with the release of their new Adilette 22 slide sandals.
“When I originally ordered Adidas to make more Yeezy slides the [general manager] lied to my face and said they didn’t have the capacity,” Ye wrote in the message which was revealed by Complex on Tuesday (2 August).
“Meanwhile Adidas was copying my slides and making their own version of the Yeezy slide,” he added. “Yeezy is 68 [per cent] of Adidas [online] sales. God step in.”
The Independent has contacted Adidas for comment.
In a now-deleted Instagram post from June 2022, Ye accused Adidas’s CEO Kasper Rorsted of “copying” designs.
“This is Ye driving down the same street Kobe passed on,” he began his post. “Maybe I feel that Mamba spirit right now.”
“To Kasper, I’m not standing for this blatant copying no more. To all sneaker culture. To every ball player rapper, or even if you work at the store; this is for everyone who wants to express themselves but feel they can’t cause they’ll lose their contract or be called crazy,” Ye wrote.
“Bravery is not being afraid. Bravery is overcoming your fear for your truth. This Ye with the blue paint on my face,” he added.
Referring to Adidas’s new Adilette 22 slides, Ye wrote: “These shoes represent the disrespect that people in power have to the talent. This shoe is a fake Yeezy made by Adidas themselves.”
In June 2021, Ye also sued Walmart for “flagrantly trading off” his brand of Yeezy footwear.
The rapper alleged that Walmart traded off his “popularity”, as well as that of his footwear brand, Yeezy, in a court filing seen by TMZ and The Blast.
An apparent copy of his Yeezy Foam Runner trainer, Ye argued, confused consumers with the $35 imitation found on Walmart’s website.
Attorneys for Ye reportedly said that Walmart “traded off” the popularity of him and Yeezy with the “unauthorised exact copy” of the Foam Runner.
Lawyers reminded the American retailer that the rapper’s Yeezy brand was worth “billions”, and that Ye “sets trends for everything he touches”.
