Nas and Fila have announced a one year marketing deal.  In the statement Nas said, “My best friend Will and I loved Fila … “It represented prestige and everything that was cool to us. When Will passed, we buried him in a black Fila sweat suit, so doing a deal with them has a lot of significance for me … From Jay-Z to 50 Cent to Kanye (West), I’ve been around longer than all of them, and I don’t need any of their marketing,” Nas says. “The people are my marketing, and that puts me in a class by myself.”  

John Epstein, President of Fila apparel said, “One of my executives spotted Nas shopping in our Manhattan store and struck up a conversation with him … Nas isn’t interested in selling out. He’s interested in being true, and that fits with our brand … Nas is relevant to his followers, and I don’t have to understand it as long as they do.”