Nike and Kim Kardashian’s Skims Join Forces: The Company Once Warned Adidas About Kanye West
As Kanye West continues his public spiral, his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, is making new business deals. Kardashian’s Skims brand is officially partnering with Nike, the sneaker manufacturer that just couldn’t make it work with Ye.
Kardashian’s latest partnership, with a brand Ye has had a problem with for years, feels like a slight. But West’s feud with Nike isn’t one-sided; Nike apparently tried to warn Adidas about West’s antics years ago.
Kim Kardashian’s Skims and Nike have teamed up
Kanye West’s racist tweets and social media meltdowns have dominated the headlines in February. Still, those around him are living and working. Interestingly enough, his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, recently announced a planned partnership with one of West’s enemy brands.
According to an official press release, Nike and Skims have teamed up to create NikeSKIMS, a brand that promises to combine Nike’s innovative training technology with Skims’ beloved aesthetic. Training apparel and footwear are planned for the partnership and will officially launch in the spring of 2025. Expansion is expected in 2026.
For most of her marriage to Kanye West, Kim Kardashian appeared to allow her husband to control her. Ye’s personal preferences seemed to largely influence her style choices, business choices, and even her interactions with family and friends. That changed when she filed for divorce in February 2021.
The divorce process was long and drawn out, but by 2022, a judge signed off on the split. Since then, Kardashian has been pretty quiet about her famous ex and his latest antics. She is proving that West no longer has any power over her.
Nike warned Adidas about Kanye West
Kanye West has a grudge against Nike. For over a decade, many fans assumed Ye was just salty over the fact that Nike wouldn’t meet his demands after they created a sneaker together. West later took his ideas to Adidas. Apparently, there is more to the story than that.
The music mogul and the shoe purveyor’s time together was so fraught that executives contacted Adidas to warn them ahead of their collaboration with West. The bad blood is about more than just money.
According to Bloomberg, executives at Nike reached out to executives at Adidas before they closed the deal with West to warn them he was difficult to work with. The admission didn’t deter Adidas; the company built a profitable partnership with West for several years. They may have wished they had heeded Nike’s warning.
While the partnership officially ended in 2022 after Ye’s first round of antisemitic tweets, things never were exceptionally smooth. According to the New York Times, West once admitted to “screaming” at two key members of the Adidas team multiple times.
West has not directly commented about his ex is working with Adidas, but he’s already appeared to make a statement in a roundabout way. Ye took to Instagram to comment on a pair of Nike concept sneakers last week. His post, which praised the shoe, felt like it might have been a bit sarcastic. It has since been deleted, and he hasn’t officially commented about NikeSKIMS.
