**November/December 2013: Kanye’s Radio Press Tour Features More Shots at the Fashion Industry **

When Nike didn’t offer Kanye the design deal he felt he deserved—one that should have included royalties on every pair of sneakers sold, according to an interview West gave to Hot 97 personality Angie Martinez—he lampooned the brand for “marginalizing” him due to his celebrity status. West told Martinez about a time when he asked Nike when the Air Yeezy 2 Red Octobers were set to release. When they replied, “We don’t know,” he took it as a sign that he was being cut out of the brand’s braintrust and, above all, completely undervalued as a creative entity. On the Breakfast Club radio show in November 2013, he said, incredulously, that Nike had not asked him to design new products in almost three years despite the success of the Yeezys. In West’s view, Nike had grown weary of his accomplishments, fearing that by giving him a broader design deal, they would be opening the door for his products to eventually compete with, or even overshadow, Nike’s main line designs. As West said in a separate radio interview with Hot 97, “As soon as [the Yeezy] was too big, it’s scary. Nike is, like, ‘No. We’re not going to let you blow to [that] level. We already have Jordan Brand, we already have that one baby. And we don’t even like that we have to compete with brand Jordan.”

To further expand his point, West then went on Power 99 radio in Philadelphia and described how big name fashion brands don’t respect the influence people like him—specifically, black rappers—have on consumers. “[They’re], like, ‘All you can do is promote our products…all we want to do is keep serving y’all with these Louis Vuitton prints until none of your bills are paid.” He then went on to describe his issue with the way that “good design” seems to only be available to those with money. “I had a conversation [with Alexander Wang],” West told the station, “just from a philanthropist perspective, as an influencer of clothing. I bought the $1,000 dollar Balenciaga sneakers because I thought it had a nice shape. Now there’s kids saving up their check for four weeks because it does have a nice shape, and they also saw me wear it. But these kids don’t need to be buying no $1,000 sneakers, and the shape that is good doesn’t have to be $1000.” Ultimately, it seems his need for corporate structure stems further than just job security, but as a way to keep costs down and get his designs onto as many people as possible by designing clothes that are available at a democratic price.