Kanye West announces partnership with Adidas [video]

Kanye West has announced a new partnership with Adidas. West has worked with Nike and Louis Vuitton on exclusive sneaker collaborations in the past, but in recent months, Ye has gone on rants about the fashion industry and how they’re blocking his entry. One example he used was his previous deal with Nike. Kanye complained that after the success of the Air Yeezys, he should be getting royalties, much like Jordan. Nike’s long held belief is that they don’t pay artists because they aren’t athletes.

So 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.

The all-red Air Yeezy IIs, known as the “Red Octobers,” don’t have an official release date from Nike. Instant classics now.

He said he wants to the the Tupac of product.