Adidas is expanding its partnership with Kanye West with plans to launch a line of basketball and football shoes and apparel bearing the hip-hop artist’s name.
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West envisions NBA and NFL players eventually wearing his shoes, branded Adidas + Kanye West, when they compete, but Adidas does not yet have plans for that activation, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Eric Liedtke, CMO of Adidas, did say: "Our industry is so ready for disruption, the same signature lines have X player, Y player, Z player, so of course we’re going to have Kanye work with our guys to challenge that as well."
We’ve only just begun. Introducing the next chapter: adidas + @KanyeWest. pic.twitter.com/kSHPqD6xzj
— adidas (@adidas) June 29, 2016
West was an athlete in high school - he played football, basketball, tennis and volleyball. He said his profession is also akin to sports.
"I’m not just a musician singing in front of a mic, we are running, jumping, we're getting hurt. We're in the same arenas that the ballplayers play in," West told the Wall Street Journal.
Adidas plans to break out the Adidas + Kanye West line into its own business unit, similar to how Nike handles the Michael Jordan brand.
The new line is an extension of a deal between Adidas and West that began last year, when the German sportswear company went to market a line of apparel and high-end sneakers designed by West and targeted more toward fashion that sports.