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While rumors have whirled for days if not weeks, Kanye West announced today in an interview with Angie Martinez on Hot 97 that he has partnered with adidas. In the interview, West mentions taking the deal with adidas while addressing the passion put into the Nike Air Yeezy designs and his previous deal with Nike:
“I asked them when the Yeezy “Red Octobers” are coming out. I asked them, me Kanye West, asked Nike when’s it coming out. They said, ‘we’re not sure yet.’ They let me design two shoes over five years. And I’m happy I could design them, but they ain’t do me no favor because Eminem designed a shoe, Pharrell designed a shoe. I just designed the Yeezys. I turned up, because I was in fourth grade designing Jordans and I brought back that feeling. You ain’t never felt that way about a shoe, since the Jordans, the way people feel about the Yeezys. I put that feeling. The same feeling that I put in College Dropout, Graduation, 808s, I put that feeling in there.
“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 SKUs — 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 go one on NO ONE. I’m a performance athlete.’
“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.”
Stay tuned to Snkrs Day for updates on the partnership with Kanye West and adidas. Give us your feedback on Kanye’s pairing with the Three Stripes in the comment section.
Photo by FameFlynet via Zimbio
Updated with video spotted at Nah Right
