Kanye West Claims Adidas Ripped Off His Yeezy Slides — Do You See a Resemblance?
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Kanye West returned to Instagram June 13 after a three-week hiatus to vent about one of adidas’ latest releases. There is an entire universe of Yeezy slide dupes that replicate the aesthetics of Ye’s iconic sandals, but the musical artist and self-described genius was surprised to see new Yeezy slide dupes coming from adidas itself.
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Sharing a photo of adidas’ new Adilette 22 slides, West — mononymously known as Ye — used the comment section to take issue with adidas for allegedly copying his Yeezy slide designs.
“THIS IS YE driving down the same street Kobe passed on,” the producer, designer and rapper wrote in the caption.
He continued, “Maybe I feel that Mamba spirit right now To Kasper I’m not standing for this blatant copying no more To all sneaker culture To every ball player rapper or even if you work at the store This is for everyone who wants to express themselves but feel they can’t cause they’ll loose their contract or be called crazy Bravery is not being afraid Bravery is overcoming your fear for your truth This Ye with the blue paint on my face These shoes represent the disrespect that people in power have to the talent This shoe is a fake Yeezy made by adidas themselves I’m not talking to DC about this either Kasper come talk to me Happy Monday.”
He later deleted the post, which you can see in a screenshot shared on Twitter below.
— TeamKanyeDaily (@TeamKanyeDaily) June 13, 2022
When looking at both shoes, the Adilette features some notable differences in texture and sole — but the silhouette does feel familiar when compared to the original Yeezy x adidas slides.
It’s also worth noting that Ye’s longtime partnership with adidas has previously birthed other products with similar bearings to his designs in the past, something GQ points to in a recent article pointing out similarities between Yeezy’s 750s and adidas’ Tubular Invader Strap sneakers.
“Since the beginning of Ye’s partnership with Adidas, the brand has drafted off the success of his shoes… Ye created a lot of hype around his silhouettes by selling them in super-limited quantities. To maintain that scarcity while cashing in on the success of Ye’s sneakers, Adidas created shoes in the core collection that resembled the harder-to-get Yeezy ones.”
This is not Ye’s first time addressing dupes of the Yeezys. In summer 2021, he sued Walmart for putting out their version of the wildly popular Foam Runner, per The New York Post.
The Adilette slides, which dropped earlier this month on adidas’ site, proved to be popular with shoppers, selling out almost immediately. Adidas also revealed plans to release the slides in new colorways later this summer.
Both the Yeezy and Adilette slides are pretty amazing if you ask us — but does Ye have a point? We’ll let you be the judge.
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