Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, has lost his lucrative deal with Adidas.
UPDATE: In a statement released on Tuesday, Adidas confirmed its decision to cut all ties with Kanye West effective immediately. Also, the apparel brand made it clear it has stopped all payments to Ye and his Yeezy company and will immediately end all production of the top-selling sneaker range. Here is the full statement:
“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. Adidas will stop the Adidas Yeezy business with immediate effect.”
See the original article below:
Adidas reportedly prepares to rannounce end of partnership with Kanye West
As reported by Bloomberg, the global apparel brand has been faced with mounting pressure to act decisively against Ye, who, in recent weeks, has been on a warpath with Jewish people.
The 45-year-old billionaire’s streak of controversy, which included several antisemitic rants, was, in fact, triggered by Adidas’ ‘Yeezy Day‘ campaign in August 2022, where the brand released a slew of restocks in colourways that Ye, in a series of messages he posted on the day, claimed he never approved.
The Junya rapper also blasted Adidas for interpolating his trademark Yeezy designs into other products, like the controversial Adilette 22, which doesn’t need much scrutiny to see that its design is a carbon copy of the Slides.
In a video that Kanye included in his first-ever YouTube vlog titled ‘LAST WEEK‘, the rapper was seen showing Adidas executives a pornographic scene, much to the discomfort of everyone in the room.
However, in Ye’s unique perspective, this was the perfect illustration of his partnership with the apparel brand.
Now, according to Bloomberg, insiders at Adidas claim that a ‘war room’ launched amid Ye’s recent outbursts has resolved that the only way forward is for the brand to sever its ties with the rapper.
Already, Ye has lost partnerships with GAP, at his own accord, Balenciaga and his agent, the Creative Arts Agency (CAA). Before Tuesday’s developments, Adidas faced mounting pressure for being silent about Ye’s controversies.
Sarah Camhi, Director of Trade and Marketing at Adidas, called out the apparel brand for turning the cheek ona Ye’s antisemitic rants.
Camhi, a member of the Jewish community, claimed Adidas has, in the past two weeks, “remained quiet; both internally to employees as well as externally to our customers.”
“We have dropped adidas athletes for using steroids and being difficult to work with but are unwilling to denounce hate speech, the perpetuation of dangerous stereotypes and blatant racism by one of our top brand partners,” she wrote.
In stock markets, Adidas has taken a serious blow, falling as much as 3.2% in Frankfurt trading, Bloomberg reports.
Yeezy, the trademark of which Ye owns 95%, accounts for 8% of Adidas’ total sales, the highest collab earnings in the industry to date. From that, Ye revealed he receives 68% of online sales.
However, in recent renegotiations, the 45-year-old, according to Bloomberg, wants a 20% royalty on every Adidas shoe he’s designed, a demand that, as things stand, the apparel brand has not met.
While the future of adidas Yeezy remains in question, sources close to the apparel brand claim the stalemate will, in the short-term, not impact sneaker drops. According to insiders, Adidas has every intention of claiming intellectual property rights on Yeezy products, with the view of producing sneakers well after the deal collapses.
Neither Adidas nor Ye has surfaced with a statement.