Did Kanye West Steal Design Blueprint From Ex-Nike Designer?

Rapper and fashion designer Kanye West is being accused of stealing fashion sketches from a former Designer of the sports brand Nike.

Yeezy Steals Sketch

In between offending fellow celebrities with his controversial remarks on slavery and politics, the 40-year-old is facing backlash for posting a design blueprint on his official Twitter account and calling it his own. However, it turns out, the material was drawn up by Tony Spackman, formerly from Nike and now a design director for Givenchy.

The original post was published on Monday, April 30. West wrote that the design was an original study for his own brand, Yeezy, used by the label as the base layer.

"I'm so excited about our new design team," he tweeted. "Yeezy is no longer a fashion company we should be referred to as apparel or clothing or simply YEEZY."

The design posted by the self-proclaimed genius was probably lifted from Spackman's official website. It bears the sketch of the human leg with notes about which muscles need extra support to reduce fatigue or improve movement. The design was made for Nike's "Living Apparel" line for fall of 2005.

Spackman himself was first to call out the use of his work by Yeezy. On his Instagram story, he posted a screenshot of West's tweet.

Kanye West Apologizes

To his credit, after he was called out, the hip-hop mogul immediately issued a statement explaining that a newly hired designer for Yeezy was responsible for submitting the study without crediting Spackman.

He also assured that the person behind the plagiarizing designer is no longer working for the brand.

Kanye West Receives Backlash

This, of course, was not the first time that West has received backlash from the web. Since he returned to Twitter last month, the rapper's name has been splashed on the headlines for his rather controversial tweets.

More recently, he received the ire of the internet, especially of the African-American community, for telling TMZ that slavery was a choice.

Celebrities such as Will.i.am, Chris Brown, Jeffrey Wright, Jordan Peele, Samuel Jackson, Kumail Nanjiani, and more have expressed their disagreement to the rapper's recent pronouncements. Pop Crave reported that Justin Bieber, The Weeknd, Rihanna, Harry Styles, Ariana Grande, Katy Perry, Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj, and BTS have unfollowed the opinionated star on Twitter.

Tags

Kanye West, Yeezy, Nike, Samuel L. Jackson