Jon Wexler Details How Kanye West Partnered with adidas

Global Director of Entertainment and Influencer Marketing of adidas, Jon Wexler shares candid details on how Kanye West partnered with the three stripes. A large part of Wexler’s job includes deciding which artists and entertainers are a good fit for adidas‘ marketing strategy. Following West’s controversial and infamous departure from Nike, Wexler was instrumental in bringing the music icon to adidas to continue production on the Yeezy line. Speaking in an exclusive interview with Complex Magazine, Wexler covers how he came to be adidas‘ Director of entertainment marketing, the process of partnering with Kanye West, and West’s impact on current adidas sales. Check out select excerpts from the interview below and head over to Complex for the full feature.

How do you decide who adidas will work with?
It’s all about DNA. People whose DNA overlaps with ours, as well as our fan base’s. Authenticity is critical, too. If that isn’t there, kids see through it. We look for people who are creative and groundbreaking, who set trends and forge their own paths and are not afraid of what people are going to say about that. Obviously the people [adidas works with] are iconic, because it is the most iconic brand in the world.

How did the partnership with Kanye West come about?
That guy is a good example of somebody who is always early. No one works harder than he does. He’s so determined to make a partnership a success, he’s constantly gathering information and speaking positively about the brand. He’s an amazing partner. He came to Germany, and has gone to the factory in China. He’s dived into understanding all aspects of what it is in the creation process and the engineering that goes into it. He’s a scientist.

We’d been in conversation for a while. Someone in his camp reached out to somebody at Reebok, who gave him my number, and we started talking. From early in our conversations it was clear that he wanted a platform to create. If you were to take what he says [during his tour speeches] and home in on those bullet points about creativity, you could tell why he had real potential at adidas. We’re going to invest in that creativity instead of limit it. During Fashion Week last September, we were launching the Jeremy Scott x A$AP Rocky collaboration and I texted Kanye, “I just landed in New York. By chance are you here?” He hit me back: “Yo, just landed. What are you doing here?” We made small talk, and at the time our CMO Hermann Deininger [who passed away in May 2014] and creative director Dirk Schonberger were in town for the Y-3 show and I said, “Hey, we’re all here. Maybe we should connect.” We met up while he was doing rehearsal for Jimmy Fallon and started to put it together. Things progressed and I remember him hitting me with a text that said, “The world changes now.” That was in November. A minute later, the signed contract came through, and we were sitting on the best-kept secret from that point on, until he mentioned it on the radio show. We issued a statement and have been in business ever since.

When Kanye was spotted wearing adidas Pure Boosts, was there a sales spike?
My piece of the business is on the relationship side of things; I don’t really look at a lot of those metrics as much. But when Kanye shows up in GQ wearing Pure Boosts or Stan Smiths, I’ve got to assume there is an impact [on sales]. Whether it be market share immediately or mind share, that’s a slow burn or quick spike. Kanye is the groundbreaker in his crew. He’s surrounded by a large group of influential people, so when he wears a pair of Pure Boosts, all those other guys are repping it as well. When we were in Mexico a few months ago confirming some product, he told me he was playing ball in Pure Boosts. I told Kanye, “We make great basketball shoes. Please don’t play in those. We’ll get you some real ball sneakers.” He replied, “No, this Pure Boost technology is so amazing. I don’t want to take them off my feet.”