The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 232 — Kanye West is wilding. Again
Why Kanye is complaining about the Adilette slides
Gooooood morning, family. Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for rocking with me this morning. I appreciate you!
My grandma turned 99 years old this week. Feeling extremely blessed today, y’all! Seriously. That’s amazing.
Let’s jump in.
What’s Kanye’s endgame here?
“Oh, brother.” That was the first thing I said when I saw Kanye West posted something to Instagram. No clue what it was. It just felt warranted. Upon reading it, I knew I was correct.
What’s up with Ye: Kanye was #MadOnline because of the new Adidas Adilette 22 slide that has caught fire in the sneaker world.
He called out CEO Kasper Rørsted, specifically, for what he called “blatant copying” of his Yeezy Slide.
He dove deep into his “I’m doing this for everybody” bag. You know, the signature Kanye move. He’s always the martyr trying to save us all.
“To Kasper I’m not standing for this blatant copying no more…To all sneaker culture...This is for everyone who wants to express themselves but feel they can’t cause they’ll lose their contract or be called crazy...These shoes represent the disrespect that people in power have to the talent.”
But let’s be honest: This is much to do about nothing. It’s just Kanye yelling on Instagram at Adidas for creating an Adidas product similar to another Adidas Yeezy product.
Yes, Kanye still owns Yeezy. But the brand is partnered with Adidas. The Yeezy products you own are Adidas products. The slide box literally says “Made by Adidas.”
Let’s also not forget that Yeezy products use Adidas proprietary technology all the time. All that boost y’all love in Yeezy? The foam for your foam runners? That’s Adidas.
And, to be quite frank, this isn’t the first time Adidas has used that Yeezy halo effect. We even did Special Delivery short on it over on YouTube to show how many times this has happened.
This isn’t new: It’s just Kanye finding a new thing to complain about. Why? I can think of a couple of reasons and they all start with Ye’s Adidas deal being up in 2026.
First: It’s felt like Kanye has wanted out from Adidas for a few years now. Between the GAP deal, the Balenciaga work and him wearing Jordans again, he seems to be ready to move on from the three stripes.
Second: Kanye could also just wants a raise. His only goal here — and in every endeavor — is to make more money. This could potentially be used as a leverage play.
We don’t really know what the exact motivation is, but I can almost certainly tell you that it isn’t for all the creatives out there as he says it is. That’s BS. Don’t pay it any mind.
In the long run: Y’all should probably be preparing for a Yeezy future without Adidas. It could mean no boost. It could mean various products he’s sold with Adidas fall by the wayside and fewer products, overall. Production is really, really hard without a massive infrastructure.
But it’ll also mean more independent ventures with various brands out there. And that could be pretty fun. Don’t expect a Nike comeback, though.
A big win for John Geiger
There hasn’t been much noise in the media from the case of John Geiger vs. Nike, but the Geiger team just got a pretty big win.
John Geiger posted this Wednesday. He secured trademark approval for his signature G from the US Patent and Trademark Office.
This is a big deal: The USPTO vets things to a tee. A trademark typically isn’t approved if there’s a chance it infringes on some other property that already exists.
I’m not a lawyer, obviously. But this provides a huge layer of protection for the GF-01 in Geiger’s defense against Nike.
It indicates that the USPTO doesn’t think this generates any confusion with the Nike swoosh.
As we know, that confusion aspect is a large part of Nike’s argument against Geiger and his team. This disproves that in a major way.
But this isn’t over: This doesn’t close the case by any means. It just makes it a bit more challenging for Nike.
This is just the swoosh part. There’s still the matter of the rest of the Air Force 1’s trade dress that will still be scrutinized by Nike’s team. That includes the paneling, the stars on the outsole, the bottom sole, the eyestays and more.
Where we’re at: Geiger said via Twitter the case is in the deposition stages, so we’re still at the tip of the iceberg with everything. If we’re lucky (we won’t be), he’ll actually get to livestream it.
We’re in for a long ride, folks.
Puma is Scooting up in the basketball sneaker world
Since returning to the signature basketball world in 2017 Puma has made some pretty big splashes. But their future is looking reeeeeal bright after some big news from last week.
The latest: They just picked up yet another basketball prodigy slated to go top 3 in the 2023 NBA draft in Scoot Henderson. The NBA G League phenom signed a multi-year deal worth 7 figures, per The Athletic’s Shams Charania, and it could be worth more should he hit certain incentives.
The background: Most of you probably haven’t heard of Scoot, but folks expect him to be something special on the next level.
Scouts and players have said he’s NBA-ready at just 17 years old.
He’s the first player ever to sign a multi-year contract with the NBA G League and inked the biggest deal a non-draft eligible player has ever had.
Why this is big: Remember when Reebok challenged Nike because they had Shaq and Allen Iverson? Or how about when Under Armour did the same with Steph Curry? There’s an opportunity for that here with some of Puma’s basketball stars on tap.
There’s no competition on the WNBA side. Puma is investing big in Breanna Stewart and Nike still doesn’t have a signature athlete.
And between Ball and Henderson, Puma could potentially have two of the 15 or so most fun players on their NBA roster in the next decade.
This could get really fun, y’all. Keep an eye on this kid. He’s going places.
The worst Air Max 1 of 2022?
This Scrap Air Max 1 just isn’t quite vibing with me, man. The right shoe has the good! But the left shoe? Yikes.
I’m normally with the mash-up vibe on a sneaker. I love the whole “What The” concept Nike does and I think it’s generally awesome. But the colors just don’t look good together here.
It’s a bespoke model so I almost certainly won’t get them — even if I wanted to. But…I don’t know. This is a weird shoe.
#TheKicksWeWear
Y’ALL KNOW THE VIBRATIONS LETS GOOOOOO.
First, the homie Tej got us popping with these Bred Toe AJ1s. Always flexing.
The homie Ninja Kitteh came through with more AJ1 love and I just love the fact that we’re wearing our shoes in 2022.
The homie Guru popped out with these SWEET UBs and an amazing sock combo.
My guy Phil came through with wifey flexing in the Union AJ4s. Goals, y’all. Goals.
Speaking of goals, Candace came through with her wifey, too, and they killed with with these Union 2s and the WNBA Dunks.
The homie Mags popped out in these Fastbreak Hi joints trying to wish her Cs some good luck. They gave it a good run. Congrats to the Dubs.
Then my guy Rube popped out in the JFG 9060 and this shoe is so beautiful and WOW I need to wear mine soon.
Then the homie Rick Dubb sent us home with the Grinches. THE GRINCHES, Y’ALL. Wow.
SMOKED IT. As always. Y’all are the best.
Thank you so much for rocking with me, family. I appreciate you! Hope you have an amazing weekend.
Remember, no newsletter on Monday. Happy Juneteenth! Enjoy Fathers Day, dads. Peace and love. Be easy, be safe, be kind. And we out.
-Sykes