World
Adidas terminates highly lucrative partnership with Kanye West
The embattled US rapper has also been dropped by Gap and French fashion house Balenciaga in the wake of a number of antisemitic comments
October 25, 2022 10:33
The embattled US rapper has also been dropped by Gap and French fashion house Balenciaga in the wake of a number of antisemitic comments
October 25, 2022 10:33Adidas has terminated its highly lucrative partnership with Kanye West after he went on a number of antisemitic rants.
The German sportswear firm said in a statement on Tuesday morning that production of Yeezy products will stop immediately, along with "all payments to Ye and his companies".
Adidas said in a statement: "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. adidas will stop the adidas Yeezy business with immediate effect."
The company added: "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."
Adidas said that move "is expected to have a short-term negative impact of up to €250 million on the company’s net income in 2022".
It was reported over the weekend that the partnership was "under review" following a series of antisemitic tirades. In one attack, he wrote that he was going to go “death con 3 on Jewish people”, and in another, he said: “I want all the Jewish children to look at their daddy and say ‘Why is Ye mad at us?’”
The rapper also boasted: “I can say antisemitic things and Adidas can’t drop me. Now what?”
.@adidas stock plummets as the brand refuses to cut ties with Kanye West over anti-semitism. pic.twitter.com/qg63tmjJHz
— Kaivan Shroff (@KaivanShroff) October 24, 2022
American retailer Gap and French fashion house Balenciaga have already cut ties with West following his recent public antisemitism.
Adidas, which was founded by members of the Nazi party, has come under fire in recent days for its failure to act following West's comments. The company's share price fell as much as 3.2 per cent in trading, reaching the lowest since April 2016, Bloomberg reports.
The number of signatures on a petition calling for Adidas to drop the US rapper has more than doubled in just 18 hours, reaching over 167,000 signatures at the time of writing. Started by the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), the petition text reads: “By continuing to align itself with a public figure who has revealed himself to be a virulent antisemite, Adidas would be demonstrating that it does not care about racism against Jews.”
Reacting to Adidas's decision to drop West, a spokesperson said: A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “A company with a Nazi past must be at the forefront, not the rearguard, of fighting antisemitism. But better late than never. No company should profit from antisemitism.
“As for Ye, who has spent the last two weeks threatening Jews and empowering neo-Nazis, he said that he could say antisemitic things yet Adidas could not drop him and asked ‘now what?’ Now he knows.”
The decision to drop West has reportedly followed weeks of internal deliberations and discussions. Adidas has spent a decade building the very lucrative Yeezy brand with West, which has accounted for as much as eight per cent of the company's sales, according to numerous estimates from Wall Street analysts.
When the partnership was put under review earlier this month, Adidas called it "one of the most successful collaborations in our industry’s history”.
However, it has not always been a smooth partnership, with the rapper accusing Adidas of copying his ideas and mismanaging the brand, and taunting the outgoing Chief Executive Officer Kasper Rorsted on social media.
The Kardashian/Jenner family coming out strong against their former in-law’s antisemitism. pic.twitter.com/Sm5uUfhILE
— peter f✡︎x (@thatpeterfox) October 24, 2022
Yesterday, multiple members of the Kardashian family posted their support for Jewish people on social media, while a number of other celebrities also spoke out.
At the weekend, Jewish Hollywood super agent Ari Emanuel, whose clients include Oprah Winfrey, wrote in an article for the Financial Times that there should be “no tolerance anywhere for West’s antisemitism”. Adidas and other brands should stop partnering with the rapper and designer, Mr Emanuel said.