Kanye West has called out Adidas for selling “fake” Yeezy 350s.
In an Instagram video on Monday, Feb. 26, Kanye, accused Adidas of “using contract clauses and 50 years of business experience to rape an artist,” and claimed the company is suing him for $250 million.
“Let me explain really clear to you guys what’s happening with Adidas,” Ye says in the video. “Not only are they putting out fake colorways that are non-approved, they’re suing me for $250 million, and they’re also not paying me for these shoes that they’re putting out that have my name on it. And they’re using contract clauses and 50 years of business experience to rape an artist, one of y’all favorite artists, right in front of y’all in broad daylight.”
In a separate post that shows the Yeezy 350s Adidas is selling, Ye wrote, “Anybody who loves Ye would not buy these fake Yeezys I never made these color ways I’m not getting paid off of them and adidas is suing me. … All the new non approved 350’s are cooorny.”
Kanye accusing Adidas of “rape” is not new. In 2022, shortly after the apparel giant announced it was placing its partnership with West under review, he posted, “FUUUUUUCK ADIDAS I AM ADIDAS ADIDAS RAPED AND STOLE MY DESIGNS.”
In that 2022 announcement, Adidas stated, “Adidas is the sole owner of all design rights to existing products as well as previous and new colorways under the partnership.”
In other words, the company said it retained the right to sell existing Yeezy product designs using Adidas branding instead of Yeezy branding.
Last year, Adidas made $813 million off of two separate releases of Yeezy inventory following its split with Ye. On Monday, Adidas announced that it was starting a third sale of its leftover Yeezy sneakers. As of Monday afternoon, there is no evidence that Adidas has filed any kind of new lawsuit against Kanye or his companies. But last year, Adidas disclosed that it had filed a private arbitration lawsuit against Ye accusing him of mishandling $75 million in marketing funds.
Adidas terminated its partnership with the rapper in 2022 after his string of antisemitic outbursts.