Jon Wexler Says adidas' Negotiations with Kanye West Started While He Was Still with Nike.Nice Kicks recently had the opportunity to catch up with Jon Wexler, adidas' Global Director of Entertainment & Influencer Marketing, better known to sneakerheads as the man who made the Kanye West partnership a reality. In the interview, Wexler takes us behind the scenes of the lead up to the collaboration and everything that's gone down since, and one of the things that really stood out is the fact that adidas was in talks with Kanye much earlier than we thought. "The first time we connected was May of 2012. There was a series of phone calls between people from his team, putting out feelers to various brands that he had an interest in partnering with," Wexler said. To give this date some context, this would mean that adidas' earliest discussions with Kanye actually went down before the Nike Air Yeezy II had even released. "In case the partnership that he was in at the time didn't evolve, I guess. Not to put myself in their head, but that's just good business, to always have your next move planned out." Then, when they first linked up in person during New York Fashion Week 2013, Wexler recalls members of Ye's camp telling him that the collaboration wasn't going to happen. "I remember, some of the guys from his team coming up to me and saying, "You will never, ever get him. Ever." [laughs] But now, some of those same people are our biggest advocates for what we're doing," Wexler said.