Adidas ended its partnership with Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, this morning, following his recent tirades and series of anti-Semitic comments.
Adidas said in a statement: “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.”
“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.”
Adidas had been facing mounting pressure to sever ties with Ye, as several high-profile brands, including Balenciaga and Vogue, had already done.
In addition to tweets promising to soon go “death con 3” (a misspelled reference to the military state of alert “DEFCON”) on Jewish people, Ye seemingly dared Adidas to move on from him in his recent appearance on the Drink Champs podcast, saying “I can literally say anti-Semitic s–t and Adidas can’t drop me. Now what?”
In its statement, Adidas acknowledged that the move is “expected to have a short-term negative impact of up to €250 million on the company’s net income in 2022” but the company remains the “sole owner of all design rights to existing products as well as previous and new colorways under the partnership.”
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