German sporting goods giant, Adidas AG, has officially ended its partnership with rapper and designer Ye, formally known as Kanye West. The move follows the rapper making several offensive and anti-semitic comments. Public pressure regarding Ye’s comments has pushed the apparel and sports brand to end its ties.
Adidas stated ,
“Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech. Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.”
The termination of the relationship will see the end of the popular Yeezee products. Moreover, the sports giant will terminate all payments to Ye and any of his companies. As per the official statement, Adidas will terminate the Adidas-Yeezee business “with immediate effect.”
The company revealed that the termination of the Yeezee lineup would result in a “short-term negative impact of up to 250 million euros ($246 million) on net income in 2022.” Moreover, the company’s shares fell 4% in Frankfurt after the news dropped.
Adidas started working with Ye in 2013, and in 2016 the two parties agreed to a contract for the company to produce and sell Ye’s Yeezy clothing line. One of the most fruitful partnerships in the history of its sector, according to Adidas, the alliance has had a “tremendous impact” on the company’s operations.
However, Ye has recently made public criticisms of Gap, one of his other business partners, as well as Adidas.
Adidas following other firms in boycotting Kanye “Ye” West?
After Ye’s anti-semitic comments and his “White Lives Matter” T-shirts, a host of problems began to attack the Grammy-winning artist. Even Ye’s bank, JP Morgan closed Ye’s Yeezee LLC bank account. After his bank account was closed down, Ye was spotted wearing a hat with the words, “Satoshi Nakamoto,” leading many to believe that the rapper and designer were considering decentralized finance as a solution.
Apart from Adidas, the luxury brand Balenciaga also cut ties with Ye for his offensive comments.
Ye has often been vocal about his feelings. This is not the first time the rapper and designer have gotten caught up with controversial comments. However, this time sure seems to be the most expensive one yet.
At press time, Adidas shares were trading at $99.19, down by 3.12%.