🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Sean "Diddy" Combs has vowed to boycott Adidas in support of friend Kanye West, who has accused the sportswear giant of plagiarizing his designs.
West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, has taken aim at Adidas and Gap on social media recently, accusing the companies of leaving him out of meetings and stealing his designs after previously making agreements for them to carry his Yeezy line.
On Tuesday, the rapper and fashion designer showed that he had celebrity support in the form of Combs, sharing a screenshot of direct messages sent to him by the music mogul.
A message attributed to Combs shows him asking West "please can [you] send me something I could post in support of you! I [will] never wear Adidas again for the rest of my life if they don't make you right!!!!"
"Please God. Love you," West responded in the private message exchange.
"This the energy this the love," West captioned the post, which showed a second slide of Combs sharing a photo of a pair of Yeezy-resembling Adidas shoes with a red X drawn over them.
Sharing the same screenshots on his own account, Combs wrote: "Since the era of Run-DMC, @Adidas has always used Hip Hop to build its brand and make billions off of our culture. BUT WE ARE MORE THAN JUST CONSUMERS NOW, WE'RE THE OWNERS.
"@KanyeWest and YEEZY are the reason Adidas is relevant to culture. WE KNOW OUR VALUE! I'm done wearing Adidas products until they make this right!! We have to support each other!! Everybody repost this please!!"
The same image of the shoes in question was posted on Instagram by music producer Swizz Beatz, who explained his reasons for backing West.
"I usually mind my business but this is DEAD WRONG!" Beatz, real name Kasseem Daoud Dean, wrote. "If we let them do this to @kanyewest it will happen to us also! This man created this groundbreaking innovation and it should be respected as a creative!
"YE is only asking for his work to be respected and not stolen that's not crazy to me !! We not buying these!!!!!!!!!!!! @adidas you're supposed to be original do the correct thing please!!!"
Hitmaker West responded to Beatz's message by sharing a screenshot, alongside the caption: "That's love."
In his continued criticism of Adidas, West on Tuesday posted an image of the brand's chief creative director Alasdhair Willis, who is married to esteemed designer Stella McCartney, the daughter of Beatles legend Paul McCartney.
"To the creative director of adidas Alasdhair Willis I've done songs with your father in law[.] How can you watch adidas do what they've done to a fellow creative and not say anything and never even meet with me or call me? Why did I have to do this in public?" West captioned the image.
Hours later, erstwhile presidential candidate West appeared keen to show that he did not want to spark any sort of conflict with Willis. He wrote in a post directed at his fans: "Please take down any meme of Alasdhair. I believe this is a good guy and he will actually call me and actually help."
West added in his caption: "Let's see if we can speak to him first[.] Me and Paul McCartney have made a lot of great music I'm cool with the family."
West, who launched his Yeezy brand with Adidas back in 2015, has publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with the brand in previous months.
Over the summer, he accused Adidas of creating August 2's brand-made holiday "Yeezy Day" without his consent.
In an Instagram direct message to Complex magazine, West said that Adidas "made up the Yeezy day idea without my approval then went and brought back older styles without my approval."
He went on to accuse the brand of reissuing older Adidas Yeezy styles, designing Yeezy colorways, and hiring key employees for the line without his approval.
Newsweek reached out to representatives of Adidas and Gap for comment.
About the writer
Ryan Smith is a Newsweek Senior Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on ... Read more