By
Bena Ilyas
April 15th, 2024
The fact that Adidas was bold enough to cut its ties with Ye is considered a positive deterrent and a strong message, particularly to superstars who exhibit racist tendencies.
German multinational clothing, shoes, and accessories brand Adidas AG (ETR: ADS) has ended its corporate partnership with Ye, also known as Kanye West, over the rapper’s anti-semitic rhetoric. The cutting of ties has been devastating for Ye as Forbes noted that the deal halt has cost him his billionaire status.
“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,” the company said, “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 is not the only brand that has cut ties with Ye as Gap Inc (NYSE: GPS) and FootLocker have also severed ties, as they do not want to have any association with his antisemitic rhetoric. Both companies say they will remove all Yeezy products from their stores and specifically, Gap has shut down the YeezyGap.com platform, and visitors are now redirected to the main Gap website.
“Foot Locker, Inc. does not tolerate any form of antisemitism or hateful and discriminatory behavior. While we remain a partner with Adidas and carry a wide assortment of their collections – we will not be supporting any future Yeezy product drops,” a Foot Locker spokesperson said.
The rapper’s woes were also compounded with the end of his partnership with other players including JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM), Balenciaga, Vogue, and CAA amongst others. To make matters worse, Ye’s verified social media accounts on both Twitter and Instagram have been suspended by the platforms.
Adidas and Ye Partnership End: a Deterrent to Antisemitic Proponents
The fact that Adidas was bold enough to cut its ties with Ye is considered a positive deterrent and a strong message, particularly to superstars who exhibit racist tendencies.
The main comment Ye is being punished for comes when he appeared on a Podcast on October 16 and shared this comment:
“I can say anti-Semitic things, and Adidas can’t drop me. Now what?”
Since that utterance was made, many racism groups have started mounting pressure on Adidas to cut ties with the rapper, with the pressure also coming from the company’s own employees and executives.
“It’s been 14 days since Kanye started spewing anti-Semitic rhetoric and Adidas has remained quiet; both internally to employees as well as externally to our customers,” US-based Adidas employee Sarah Camhi wrote in a LinkedIn post on Monday, a comment that got a nod from the company’s director for trade marketing.
Ye is not the only one that will feel the impact of the partnership split as Adidas said severing ties may fuel cost it as much as 250 million euros ($246 million) on its net income this 2022 financial year. The company said it will give more details when it releases its third-quarter performance report on November 9.