Kanye West is still going off about his footwear and design ambitions on Instagram. And today, he’s brought Authentic Brands Group into the mix.
The rapper-turned-fashion mogul, now days into a ranting streak on Instagram, suggested on Monday an interest in partnering with Authentic Brands Group, whose roster of brands includes Forever 21, Barneys New York, J.C. Penney, Reebok, Muhammad Ali, Shaquille O’Neal, Marilyn Monroe and more.
“I need a shoe company like how Jamie Salter bought Reebok,” West wrote in a Monday post to Instagram, referring to the CEO of Authentic Brands Group, which acquired Reebok from Adidas in a deal that closed earlier this year.
In another post a few hours later, West outlined his goal to have his contract with Adidas terminated and to have the company pay him $2 billion in damages and for “stealing” his IP (intellectual property).
ABG declined to comment. FN has reached out to Yeezy and Adidas for a comment.
CREDIT: Instagram
These posts are the latest outbursts from West in a series of jabs aimed at Adidas and its executives. In the last few days, West has expressed frustration with Adidas for not giving him enough jurisdiction and power over his Yeezy line.
After designing for Nike, West signed a deal with Adidas in 2013. In June 2016, Adidas and West announced they had extended their partnership, calling it a “Yeezy-branded entity creating footwear, apparel and accessories for all genders across street and sport.” In 2021, he struck a 10-year deal for Yeezy Gap with Gap Inc. and the option to renew after 5 years.
In a now deleted post from Thursday, West said he plans to open Yeezy stores across the world and said he “saved” both Adidas and Gap by signing deals with them. Later in the day, he posted a now-deleted fake front-page newspaper headline on his Instagram account that read, “Kasper Rørsted Also Dead at 60,” referring to Adidas’ CEO who will step down from his role next year.
West also drafted a series of posts aimed at Daniel Cherry III, Adidas’ SVP and GM who joined in January, and posted headshots of Adidas’ Supervisory Board members as well. West said in a Sunday post that these board member images were removed for violating Instagram’s guidelines — though they appeared to repopulate later.
Among other images posted were a photo of West and Cherry side by side with the words, Adidas Civil War, which appeared to be based on the design of the Marvel movie of the same name.
This is not the designer’s first time publicly calling out Adidas. West in June took to Instagram to call out Adidas for allegedly coping his work. In his rant, West shared a photo of the Adidas Adilette 22 and called it “a fake Yeezy,” and demanded Rorsted talk to him.
He also previously addressed not having a seat on the Adidas or Gap boards in September 2020, and wrote “Black board seats matter” via Twitter. Later in the month, he took to Twitter and demanded to be added to both the Adidas and Gap boards and said he would wear Jordans until he landed a seat on the Adidas board and that he would not release anything until he was added to Gap.
