But the Adilette 22 slide that sparked West’s complaint isn’t even the most derivative design Adidas has produced using his aesthetic for non-Yeezy footwear. The brand hadn’t sought to reimagine the Adilette like this until West energized that style of footwear. Although his post has since been deleted, his Instagram once again wiped, the message resonates.Īdidas’ iteration on a long-existing product did not arrive until after the Yeezy Slide. “I’m not standing for this blatant copying no more,” West wrote on Monday, surfacing on Instagram to blast Adidas in a long caption.

He used his social media to appeal directly to Adidas CEO Kasper Rørsted. In an Instagram post on Monday, West called out his collaborator over its Adilette 22 slide, a design he says is a ripoff of his own Yeezy Slide, which is also made by Adidas. In this battle, he’s pitted himself against Adidas, the company that produces his Yeezy sneakers. West is taking aim at the tendency of sneaker makers to water down collaborators’ designs for products that they aren’t actually involved in. Now, he’s fighting to protect the designs that artists make in partnership with those brands. Of course he already has, rewriting the rules around how big brands collaborate with artists and enlarging the scale of hype footwear into sustained commercial success. Kanye West wants to change the sneaker industry.

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