Kanye West has certainly been stirring up some trouble over the last few weeks. With a never-ending string of controversial tweets and some unpopular opinions, the rapper has been on the tip of everyone’s tongues lately. But the one thing that won’t change? His partnership with Adidas.
Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted interviewed with Bloomberg and was asked the question that’s on everyone’s minds: what were his opinions on Kanye’s opinions? “There clearly are some comments we don’t support. Kanye has been and is a very important part of our strategy and has been a fantastic creator, and that’s where I’m gonna leave it… Kanye and Yeezy is a very important part of our brand from a revenue standpoint. It’s a very important part of how we promote our products, particularly in the U.S. and other parts of the world.”
Some of the opinions that they don’t support are likely the ones causing the most outrage, including Kanye’s support of Donald Trump and his speech declaring that slavery was a “choice.” West appeared on TMZ Live, where he addressed the President as “my boy” before discussing slavery, saying, “When you hear about slavery for 400 years — for 400 years! That sounds like a choice.” (For the record, it wasn’t.)
However, Kanye’s long history with Adidas seems to trump his history of being a controversial figure. Since signing with the brand in 2013, he has released a clothing line as well as the super-popular Yeezy Boost shoe. Kanye has been very public about how popular his Yeezy shoes are. With a string of recent tweets, he even claims to have their most popular shoe.
the Yeezy 350s sell 400 thousand pair in four hours. Only thing close to this is the iPhone.
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018
the desert rat 500 sold 250 thousand in one hour on Coachella weekend. Please do not try to play Yeezy or anyone who wears Yeezy. We are the future.
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018
the Yeezy 700 is adidas most requested shoe
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018
adidas have been great partners and they’ve let Yeezy be Yeezy. This could’ve never happened at Nike
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018
Rorsted isn’t the only one to show their alliance with Kanye. Kim Kardashian West recently appeared on Ellen, where she discussed Kanye’s “surprise return” to social media, saying, “I didn’t even know he got his Twitter again until I started seeing tweets coming in from other people retweeting them. And I was like, ‘Wait, is this real?’ And then at night he came in and said, ‘Did you see my tweets?’ I was like, ‘Yes, I did see your tweets,’ and I followed him back.”
However, an insider told People that Kim is “concerned” about her husband, stating, “Kanye is the most amazing person when he’s not acting like this. But when he gets manic, it’s really hard for everyone around him. Kim is absolutely worried about him right now, but she will defend him publicly to the end. She’s a very loyal wife, and her tweets and everything she’s been saying is definitely very calculated to help Kanye.”
To the media trying to demonize my husband let me just say this… your commentary on Kanye being erratic & his tweets being disturbing is actually scary. So quick to label him as having mental health issues for just being himself when he has always been expressive is not fair
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) April 25, 2018
Mental Health is no joke and the media needs to stop spitting that out so casually. Bottom line
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) April 25, 2018
While Adidas is staying with Kanye, he’s recently and publicly parted ways with his co-managers Scooter Braun and Izvor Zivkovic, tweeting (again), “I no longer have a manager. I can’t be managed. I’m nobody’s ‘client.’” If we can take anything from his never-ending Twitter stream, it’s that Yeezy’s are always on the top of his mind. After announcing the split from his managers, he tweeted that he was the “the single highest paid person in footwear,” predicting that it will soon become a dec corn (a company with a $10 billion valuation).
there’s been a lot of fake news so I just wanted to give you the facts. Yeezy will become the biggest apparel company in human history by working with the most genius level talents and creating product at an affordable price. I hired the head of supply chain from the Gap.
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018
I think the only thing that I can be certain of in all of this is that now, instead of saying, “I love you more than Kanye loves Kanye,” I’m going to start saying, “I love you more than Kanye loves Yeezys.”