According to a business statement issued on Tuesday, sportswear firm Adidas has ended its collaboration with rapper Kanye West as a result of his anti-Semitic remarks. The company believes that this decision will have a negative impact on its bottom line of up to $246 million this year alone. West was referred to in the statement by his alias ‘Ye,’ and the sneaker company said: ‘Anti-Semitism and any other kind of hate speech are not tolerated by Adidas. Ye has recently made remarks and taken acts that are unacceptable, dangerous, and against the company’s values of inclusiveness, respect, and justice’.
The action comes after recent attacks by West on the Jewish community. He announced on social media earlier this month that he intended to go ‘death con 3 on Jewish people,’ among other things. Then he made an appearance on ‘Drink Champs’ on Revolt TV and launched into an anti-Semitic rant. Following West’s remarks, a white nationalist organisation in Los Angeles erected a banner over the 405 highway that said, ‘Kanye is right about the Jews’.
Seven years ago, West and the athletic brand originally worked together on a fashion project known as Adidas Yeezy. According to ‘Variety,’ Adidas announced that it has decided to dissolve the agreement, stop making products under the Yeezy name, and stop making payments to his firms after conducting a ‘thorough examination’. The announcement read, ‘Adidas will cease the Adidas Yeezy business with immediate effect’.
Due to the s’trong seasonality of the fourth quarter,’ which includes Black Friday and Christmas, the business calculated that ending the Yeezy collaboration would reduce Adidas’s net profits by 250 million euros in 2022, but it stressed that it anticipated the decline to be temporary. Adidas also noted in the statement that it is the ‘exclusive owner of all design rights’ under the collaboration, which is undoubtedly a caution to West’s camp should the rapper try to replicate the designs with a different manufacturer.
Post Your Comments