I'm sorry, I was unclear. The part where Nike didn't give up creative or manufacturing (or distribution) control is totally believable - the part I'm struggling to find credible is that he couldn't then find anyone willing to agree to manufacture shoes to his specs and then let him arrange for distribution. That's... just not how that works. Donald "the rapist" Trump can figure out how to do that, but Ye couldn't?
I can totally believe nobody came to him about it, but all that means is he didn't want to work with a generic brand he approached. It would have been almost trivial to solve the problem if he were serious about an affordable clothing brand, rather than a trendy clothing brand.