RIP, Air Yeezy: Kanye West Signs Deal With Adidas

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Complex Original

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The days of the Air Yeezy and any hope for a general release for the Nike Air Yeezy 2 "Red October" are now gone, as Kanye West announced on Hot 97 Radio in New York City that he has signed a deal with Adidas. Speculation previously surrounded this deal after Kanye expressed problems he had experienced with Nike regarding his contract, specifically regarding the fact that they did not give him any back end royalties on sales of the Air Yeezy 2 and did not want to give him similar financial compensation moving forward. Evidently, Adidas offered Kanye much better terms, leading to this creative partnership. Specifically, Kanye had the following to say in regards to his new deal:

"Whatever is official, non-official, official—what y'all gonna see is I'm gonna be the Tupac of product."

"I'm gonna be the first hip-hop designer and because of that I'm gonna be bigger than Walmart."

"So the old me, without a daughter, would have taken the Nike deal because I just love Nike's 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."

"Nike told me, 'We can’t give you royalties because you’re not a professional athlete.' I told them, 'I'll go to the Garden and play one-on-no one.' I’m a performance athlete."

Believe him or not, it's needless to say that we're excited to see what will come out of this. Although we think Nike is a better brand than Adidas in general, the latter does have the pedigree of working with high-end designers, having previously partnered with Raf Simons, Rick Owens, Jeremy Scott and, of course, Yohji Yamamoto, whom helms his own Y-3 sub-label. Because of this, it's very possible that whatever product we do end up seeing down the road will be a clearer and less watered down expression of Kanye West's creative vision. As to whether that vision will prove to be something that changes the world as Kanye thinks it will, only time will tell.