Because it lost hundreds of millions of dollars from its severed relationship with Kanye West, Adidas announced it will continue to sell Yeezy shoes, but under a different name with no affiliation to the rapper.
Key Details
- Adidas canceled its business relationship with rapper Kanye West because of his anti-semitic remarks on social media.
- The remarks caused him to lose many business deals—Adidas was the largest, which amounted to around $1.5 billion of the music star’s wealth.
- The sportswear company completely cut ties with the performer, but recently announced it will still be selling his Yeezy brand just with a different name and no affiliation to him.
Why it’s news
Kanye West is known to be controversial on social media, but his latest posts have cost him many business deals and brand sponsorships ultimately leading to him being removed from Forbes billionaires’ list.
He officially lost his partnership with German sportswear company Adidas where he sold his shoe brand Yeezy. The Yeezy brand brought in around $1.8 billion annually for Adidas—which would be a huge loss for the company.
Adidas recently announced that it will continue to sell the shoes, but under a different name and with no affiliation to Kanye West.
“I can confirm that Adidas is the sole owner of all design rights related to existing products, as well as previous and new colorways under the partnership,” says Adidas CFO Harm Ohlmeyer. “We intend to make use of these rights as early as 2023.”
If the company cut the shoes out completely it would be taking a huge loss, but by keeping the shoes in production it will keep the millions brought in addition to more money that will no longer have to be paid to West for his endorsement.
“We will save over 300 million euros ($310 million) related to royalty payments and marketing fees,” says Ohlmeyer. “This will help us to compensate for the vast majority of the top and the bottom line impact in 2023.”