Adidas drops Ye — with ‘immediate effect’
Adidas has terminated its seven-year — and extremely lucrative — partnership with Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, after he made a series of antisemitic comments.
“After a thorough review, the company has taken the decision to terminate the partnership with Ye immediately, end production of Yeezy branded products and stop all payments to Ye and his companies,” the German sportswear giant said in a statement. “Adidas will stop the Adidas Yeezy business with immediate effect.”
The company said the move is expected to have a short-term negative impact of up to 250 million Euros ($246 million) on its net income in 2022 given the “high seasonality” of the fourth quarter.
The Yeezy brand has proved a sales windfall for Adidas. Yeezy sales for Adidas are estimated to be around $2 billion annually, potentially making up 10% of Adidas’s total sales.
Earlier this month, Adidas said it was reviewing its relationship with Ye and, while so doing, would continue to “co-manage” current products from his Yeezy brand. But the company has faced mounting pressure from the public and its own employees to cut ties with Ye. In an open letter, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan A. Greenblatt urged Adidas to reconsider supporting the Ye product line and to issue a statement making clear “that the Adidas company and community has no tolerance whatsoever for antisemitism.”
The celebrity didn’t help things when in a since-deleted interview last week on the Drink Champs podcast he said could make antisemitic comments and he would still have Adidas’ support
In ending its ties with Ye, Adidas joins a growing list of other companies, including talent agency CAA, French fashion house Balenciaga and the influential fashion publication, Vogue. He has also been suspended from Instagram and Twitter for violating their policies on hate speech,
Adidas has partnered with West since 2013, when the company signed his brand away from Nike. The company expanded its deal with him in 2016, calling it “the most significant partnership ever created between a non-athlete and an athletic brand.”
Ye’s relationship with Adidas, however, has recently turned sour, and he has said the company hasn’t given him enough control over his brand. He has posted pictures on social media attacking Adidas board members and in early September posted a doctored image of a New York Times front page with a false report that the Adidas CEO had died.
In its statement, Adidas noted that it is the sole owner of all design rights to existing products as well as previous and new colorways under the partnership.
Yeezy sales for Adidas are estimated to be around $2 billion annually, potentially making up 10% of Adidas’s total sales, reported CNBC.