
November 01, 2022: -On Tuesday, Adidas ended its alliance with Kanye West following the musician making offensive and antisemitic comments.
Adidas stated, “Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any different sort of hate speech. Ye’s latest comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful, and dangerous, violating the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.”
“After a thorough review, the company has decided to terminate the partnership with Ye, end production of Yeezy branded products, and pause all payments to Ye and his companies. Adidas will stop the Adidas Yeezy business with a recent effect.”
It added that this would have a short-term negative impact of up to 250 million euros on net income in 2022 because of the high seasonality in the fourth quarter.
The German sportswear firm had encountered pressure from the public and its employees to cut ties with Ye, who added on a podcast on October 16: “I can say anti-Semitic things, and Adidas can’t drop me. Now what?” Calls on Adidas had come from almost three legal organizations and anti-racism groups.
Talent agency CAA stated it had dropped Ye as a client, and he was let go by Balenciaga in the previous week.
Twitter and Instagram are blocking him over antisemitic remarks. Conservative social media platform Parler then announced Ye had agreed to buy the platform.
Adidas decreased 4% in morning trading in Frankfurt after Bloomberg reported that it was planning to end the partnership early in the day.
The company started a review of the partnership on October 6 but has been widely criticized for its inaction since then.
In a LinkedIn post on Monday, U.S.-based Adidas employee Sarah Camhi wrote, “It’s almost 14 days since Kanye began spewing anti-Semitic rhetoric, and Adidas is quiet; both internally to employees and externally to our customers.”
The director for trade marketing further said, “We need to do better as a brand. We need to do almost for our employees, and we need to do better for our communities. Until Adidas takes a stand, I will not be with Adidas.”
Adidas began working with Ye in 2013 and 2016 and signed a deal to manufacture and distribute items from his Yeezy clothing line through the company. Adidas holds said the partnership has had a “tremendous impact” on its business and is one of the most successful collaborations in the thing of its industry.
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