Adidas is terminating its partnership with Kanye West.
On Tuesday, the German sportswear giant said it was officially cutting ties with West after he made a series of anti-Semitic remarks and embraced a slogan associated with white supremacists.
“Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech,” the company said in a statement. “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.”
West had faced increasing pressure to terminate its nearly decade-long partnership with Ye, and said they stand to lose $246 million this year as a result.
🔴 BREAKING: @Adidas terminates partnership with #KanyeWest, effective immediately!
In the statement, they say "adidas does not tolerate antisemitism", yet for 2 weeks, that is exactly what they did by staying silent.
Hope other corporations learn from this regrettable example. pic.twitter.com/oq4NyYAS8q
— Arsen Ostrovsky 🎗️ (@Ostrov_A) October 25, 2022
During his Yeezy Season 9 show at Paris Fashion Week, West wore a shirt with the slogan “White Lives Matter” and made repeated anti-Semitic remarks in interviews and on social media, including a tweet where he said he would go “death con 3 ON JEWISH PEOPLE.”
“I can say anti-Semitic shit and Adidas cannot drop me,” Kanye boasted on the “Drink Champs” podcast earlier this month.
He also harassed Adidas executives on Instagram, including Senior Vice President and General Manager Daniel Cherry, calling him a “weakling in a position of artificial power.”
This is West’s most significant partnership to come to an end over his anti-Semitic statements. His former talent agency CAA has dropped him and Def Jam, his longtime record label, said that his contract had expired last year. Balenciaga was first to announce that it was cutting ties with West.
The controversies have also cost him his billionaire status. Forbes has announced that West is no longer a billionaire as a result of the termination of his business deals with Adidas and Gap.
Ye had worked with Adidas since 2013 on his popular line of Yeezy sneakers. Shares of Adidas traded down more than 7 percent after the announcement on Tuesday. The company’s stock has fallen over 20 percent in the past month amid Ye’s controversial behavior.
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