How Yeezy Jumped Over Everyone

When Drake was seen wearing Adidas in a few weeks worth of paparazzi photos back in mid-2018, murmurs began of a possible departure from Jordan Brand for an Adidas partnership. This news made waves as it potentially could have caused a shift in scale between Nike and Adidas, the two sportswear giants that have been competing heavily for a new demographic’s affections and patronage for the past five years: a demographic that looks up to musicians and artists more than athletes. The beginning of Drake’s supposed brand switch was subtle, with the musician innocently spotted in the background of group photos wearing Yeezy boots. While still very much an Adidas product, there was minimal Adidas iconography visible. Then came the ultra boosts in videos of Drake playing basketball and walking to his car. It was a bold step up when the track pants were then featured in shots of Drake lounging on planes and staring down the camera, complete with the three stripes down the side. Finally, Drake appeared in an Adidas top with the trefoil dead center.

Drake, 2018

Some of the pictures from this era are still visible if you scroll down Drake’s Instagram feed, though many have been deleted. His brief affair with Adidas ended with Pusha T’s track “The Story of Adidon”, revealing not only that Drake was hiding a child (“YOU ARE HIDING A CHILD”) but that his son would be unveiled as part of an Adidas campaign. The campaign never materialized, and just as suddenly as the Adidas had come, it was gone, swapped back over to Nike. It is more than likely that Drake teased working with Adidas in order to make Nike compete and bequeath him a bigger bag in the long run. While wearing sweatpants may not seem like much of a negotiating tactic, the effects were huge from a marketing standpoint. Nike is represented by the best of the best worldwide, from athletes to musicians to fashion designers. To have one of their most popular figures break away from the Nike family to promote their main competitor’s logo in a post seen by millions (as of May 2018 Drake had 42 million instagram followers) was detrimental. They re-signed Drake (this time directly to Nike and not Jordan brand) for an undisclosed dollar amount and length of time, yet some conditions from the contract can be inferred by Drake's behavior since. The only logo shown on his social media, outside of his own OVO logo and very few exceptions, is the Nike swoosh. Drake has taken to wearing a Nike cap regularly, giving Nike very clear advertising and indisputably showing where Drake’s loyalties lie.

Drake, 2019

The last time a musician decided to defect from Nike to Adidas, they quickly made some of the most sought after and iconic shoes of the decade. The Jordan brand under Nike has done about $3 billion annually, but the Yeezy brand under Adidas recorded $1.3 billion in 2019 without stepping foot on a basketball court. Furthermore, Yeezy brand has grown dramatically every year since the partnership began in late 2013, while Jordan stagnates. The two silhouettes Kanye West made with Nike between 2009 and 2014 were a huge success, but the brand’s first partnership with a non-athlete. Perhaps this is why Nike underestimated the value of Ye, and only produced a very small amount of the six pairs released. Nike refused to pay Ye royalties, so by the time their final pair released (Red October Air Yeezy 2s) Ye was signed to Adidas. Silence followed this monumental announcement for more than a year until Yeezy season 1 appeared in February 2015, debuting the 750, 350, and 950 footwear.

Kanye West wearing 750s at Yeezy Season 1, 2015

The footwear was an immediate success, but the clothing did not perform commercially. Adidas announced that they were not going to support Yeezy apparel, but planned on continuing on with footwear. Yeezy Season 2 was shown, but commercial production was cancelled soon after. Season 3 suffered a similar fate. By now it was early 2016. Adidas had tentatively released a few more colorways of the 750 and 350 sneakers, which sold out instantly. But the excitement for the Adidas and Kanye West partnership was dwindling. It seemed that Adidas wasn't sure what to do with the IP. It was at this point when Ye began wearing Vans.

Kanye West, 2016

Ye wore Vans for the paparazzi, and he wore them in the studio. Sound familiar? It was the same strategy Drake would use two years later to make Nike jealous. When Ye’s album “Life of Pablo” released in February, it came with the line “Some days I’m in my Yeezys/Some days I’m in my Vans”. This seemed to do the trick, and in June, Adidas finally went all in on Kanye West. They announced a long term deal and a completely overhauled collaborative plan, with a dedicated design team and facilities exclusive to Yeezy. It’s then that they truly found their groove, and since the announcement of this Yeezy Adidas 2.0 era, countless colors of around a dozen models have been released to unrelenting success--finally giving Ye the economical fortitude to finance his own clothing projects separate from Adidas. Ye only makes around 5 percent royalties from Adidas through Yeezy sales, meaning he made around $140 million in royalties in 2019. But If Nike had offered West $140 million a year to stay with them he would have not done so, because Adidas was finally giving him the infrastructure he needed to execute his vision. It seems unlikely that the swoosh will ever be seen on Kanye again. He even released a song in 2016 titled “Facts” dissing Nike:

If Nike ain't have Drizzy, man, they would have nothin',

If Nike ain't have Don C, man, they would have nothin'

But I'm all for the family, tell 'em, "Get your money"

Nike is indeed spending money, especially recently. With the sneaker market in the palm of Ye’s hand, Nike is trying everything they can to get it back. Nike has been trying to compensate for their blunder of losing Ye by seemingly giving all of his friends collaborations. The “family” Ye raps about are an array of people recently signed to Nike in the Kanye West extended universe. Many of them are close friends and past collaborators who worked with Ye, but now focus on their own creative projects. Ye mentioned Drizzy (Drake) as well as his friend and manager Don C, but many more people have joined the Nike team since his song came out. Most notably was Ye’s longtime creative right hand man Virgil Abloh, who collaborated with Nike via his brand Off-White to make a slew of sneakers beginning in 2017, mirroring the output level of Ye and Adidas. Abloh’s line of sneakers was dubbed “The Ten” (though he's still cranking them out). Later that year, Hiroshi Fujiwara of Fragment Design revealed that originally, he was the one who was going to design and release “The Ten” with Nike, but Nike abruptly chose Abloh instead, scrapping Fujiwara’s project. Fujiwara has been working with Nike for decades, and their collaborations have always been successful. There is no reason for Nike to have taken his project away and given it to Abloh besides that they wanted a Kanye West association back with Nike. Then there is Travi$ Scott, a musician involved in Ye’s GOOD music label, who has released a few unique colorways of preexisting silhouettes since 2019. But Nike’s decision to have him work only on old product designs with updated colors shows that they were less interested in the innovation he could potentially offer and more interested in having Ye’s most successful protégé behind a Nike logo. Jerry Lorenzo worked with Ye primarily during the Yeezus era, designing tour merch as well as working on Ye’s A.P.C collaboration. Lorenzo joined up with Nike in 2018 through his brand Fear of God, marking yet another figure from Ye’s creative inner circle poached by Nike. Matthew M. Williams, the former art director of Ye, had a capsule collection with Nike in 2020 through his own brand 1017 Alyx 9SM. The rollout for Williams’ collaboration heavily involved Drake. Many of the looks were shown off by the musician in social media posts and music videos (in “Toosie Slide” Drake name-drops both Alyx and Nike), further cementing Drake’s position as simply an advertising platform for Nike.

Nike Future Sport Forum featuring aforementioned Drake, Virgil Abloh, Travi$ Scott, and Matthew M. Williams, 2020

Kanye and Drake have had a rivalry for many years, with part of their beef stemming from their loyalties to Adidas and Nike, respectively. Kanye attacked Nike first with the line on Facts: “Nike out here bad, they can't give shit away”. This proved partially true, as Nike’s net income per year rose a meager $200 million from 2015-2018, while Adidas saw theirs rise $1.3 billion in the same time. Ye brought up the Nike Adidas rivalry again in 2018 on All Mine:

“Ayy, if you drivin' 'round in some Dri-Fit

Ayy, I'ma think that you the type to dry snitch

Hm, mhm, if I see you pull up with the three stripes

Ayy, ayy, I'ma fuck around and make you my bitch”

Translation: Ye dislikes Nike, but he's excited about Adidas. He had good reason to be too, as in the few years since his last jab at Nike, their footwear revenue grew only 6% in both 2016 and 2017, while Adidas’ grew 21% and then 25% in 2017. This data is extremely telling, as these were the first years that Yeezy brand began heavily producing and moving their sneakers. Yeezy took advantage of the new infrastructure Adidas had given him, and it resulted in a noticeable shift in value of the brand. Drake clapped back at Yeezy and Adidas soon after, rapping “Yeah, keepin' it G, I told her, "Don't wear no 350s 'round me", conveying his dislike of the wildly popular Yeezy 350s. Soon after, in the song “Sicko Mode” with fellow Nike signee Travi$ Scott, he very clearly stated “Checks over Stripes”. Drake may be right, as despite the boost Ye gave to Adidas, Nike is a far larger company (market capitalization as of July 2019 stood at $140 billion, compared to Adidas’ $65 billion). But one thing is clear when you compile all the data: Adidas is swiftly closing the gap.

So what does the future hold for these two sportswear companies, and all of their brand ambassadors? Drake will likely keep collecting millions in endorsements from Nike as an influencer, yet not much more. The army of designers Nike is collaborating with will likely be kept on too, as the last thing Nike needs is more of their collaborators leaving to work on bigger and better projects elsewhere, as Kanye did. While Nike is in the lead for now, they are beginning to trip up and become desperate. With the recent success and growth of Adidas, energized by Kanye’s partnership, there is only one logical endpoint: Kanye will become the first non-athlete to sign a lifetime agreement with Adidas, a contract likely with nine zeros on it, joining the upper echelons of the most influential and dominating figures ever paid to wear a logo.

Kanye West with Adidas Yeezy prototypes, 2019

Photo 1: Courtesy of Spotern

Photo 2: Courtesy of theBlast

Photo 3: Courtesy of Hypebeast

Photo 5: Courtesy of ModernNotoriety

Photo 6: Courtesy of Forbes