Two weeks after placing their partnership under review, Adidas has today announced that the brand will no longer be working with Ye (previously known at Kanye West).
This decision comes as a response to the offensive antisemitic comments made by the rapper recently, just weeks after he had already been suspended from Instagram and Twitter due to offensive posts.
As per the Business of Fashion (opens in new tab), Adidas said in a statement, “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.”
Adidas will be terminating all production of Yeezy products and has said that, effective immediately, they plan to stop all payments to Ye. According to reports, this will result in a short-term negative impact for the brand of up to 250 million euros (£217 million).
Adidas is not the first company to sever ties with Ye over his harmful rhetoric, Balenciaga also released a statement on Friday announcing they will also no longer be working with the artist.
In a statement to WWD (opens in new tab), a representative for Kering (Balenciaga’s parent company) said, “Balenciaga has no longer any relationship nor any plans for future projects related to this artist.” In conjunction with this announcement, all references to Balenciaga’s partnership with Ye were removed from the brand’s website.
American retail giant Gap, also recently ended its partnership with the rapper, cutting ties with Ye only 2 years into a 10-year contract.
We will continue to update this story as the situation evolves.