Kanye West‘s dissatisfaction with Nike has been well-documented. The hip-hop star has blasted the athletic apparel giant over its marketing of his “Yeezy” sneakers and called out company CEO Mark Parker last week during West’s performance at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. And according to reports, he’s already moved on–with a new $10 million deal with Nike’s biggest rival, Adidas.
An unnamed source told Page Six that, in addition to his grievances over the marketing of his signature sneaker, Kanye was also angry that he “only got 10 to 20 cents on the dollar for sales of his sneakers from Nike, and he only had a small personal stash to give out to his friends.”
His complaints about Parker were loud and clear at the Barclays show.
“They try to act like people ain’t line up for the Yeezys,” he said that night. “Mark Parker tried to son me. Yes. Son me because I am the sun and I will shine bright. And when I don’t have as much money as a billionaire and when I don’t have the factories that, that dude has over there, what I do have is my voice. Ain’t no corporation that can take me away from my voice and I’m going to scream at the top of my motherfucking mountain as loud as I want. Anything I want. Whenever I want. Is that crazy? So I’m going to make the announcement on Monday with the corporation that finally let me get an opportunity to create.”
Earlier this week, Kanye told Hot 97’s Angie Martinez that he had to move on from Nike for the good of himself and his new family.
“I gotta get my money up to another level because it ain’t on Jay Z level,” Kanye said in the interview. “It ain’t on Diddy level yet. … The old me, without a daughter, might have taken the Nike deal because I just love Nike so much, blah blah blah. But the new me, with a daughter, takes the Adidas deal because I have royalties and I have to provide for my family. Whatever’s official, non-official, what y’all are gonna see is I am going to be the Tupac of product. It ain’t no Tupac of rap except for Tupac. … My designs are based on what I grew up on in hip-hop. My references be like, ‘Girl shaped like Kim [Kardashian.]’ Not these skinny, trying to look like a boy-type models that they try to put on the runway in fashion. My reference is Nas and Mobb Deep. … I’m gonna be the first hip-hop designer and because of that, I’m going to be bigger than Wal-Mart.”
