After almost a decade, the partnership between Kanye West and adidas has officially come to an end.
Today, adidas released a statement announcing the termination of its partnership with Ye, effective immediately. The Three Stripes cites Ye’s recent anti-Semitic comments as grounds for the termination as they “violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.”
The comments in question include Ye saying that he will be going “death con 3” on Jewish people in a now-deleted Tweet posted on October 8th, which led to him being banned from Twitter for hate speech. Ye doubled down on his comments in following interviews, including on Drink Champs where Ye stated “I can say anti-Semitic things, and adidas can’t drop me.”
Many other businesses have cut ties with Ye since he made his anti-Semitic remarks, including Def Jam, Balenciaga, CAA, and Vogue. Prior to adidas releasing its statement, the hashtag #BoycottAdidas was trending on Twitter, with fans urging the German sportswear giant to cut ties with Ye or lose their business.
With this termination, adidas will “end production of Yeezy branded products and stop all payments to Ye and his companies.” As the YEEZY line is a big source of revenue for adidas, the company also notes an expected “short-term negative impact of up to €250 million on the company’s net income in 2022 given the high seasonality of the fourth quarter.”
Though adidas did not comment on what it will be doing with its already-manufactured YEEZY products (such as the “Pirate Black” 350 reissue), it is highly unlikely that any further adidas YEEZY releases will take place, as the company says it “will stop the adidas Yeezy business with immediate effect.”
More information on this partnership termination will be given on November 9th at part of adidas’ Q3 earnings announcement. Read adidas’ full statement below:
