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Adidas has joined the list of businesses to cut ties with Kanye West. Adidas’ 10-year-long collaboration with Kanye was recently put under review following his “White Lives Matter” t-shirt fiasco at Paris Fashion Week. This was followed by Ye's anti-Semitic comments and the internet calling out the German sportswear giant for their continued collaboration with the rapper. Adidas has also announced that they will now pull all of Kanye’s products from sale with immediate effect.
Adidas announced the same on October 25, 2022, when the company issued a notice stating:
“Adidas terminates partnership with Ye immediately.”
The statement mentioned how the brand does not tolerate antisemitism or 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' decision to drop Ye has been met with praise online. Amongst others, the popular fitness brand, Weight Watchers, also applauded Adidas for the action by saying:
“Congrats Adidas on losing 163 lbs!!!”
It seems that Weight Watches mocked Kanye, who weighs about 163 lbs, in their tweet, after the sportswear brand decided to break ties with the rapper and designer.
Weight Watchers quick-witted tweet for Kanye leaves netizens in splits
Twitter erupted with hilarious reactions to Weight Watchers' humorous tweet about Adidas dropping Kanye.
Others are giving Weight Watchers and their social media team a “Twitter Award” for the tweet.
Adidas might face a loss of £250 million after terminating their partnership with Kanye
Adidas has previously stated that their collaboration with Kanye West and his brand, Yeezy, has been one of the most successful ones for the company. However, making this amendment can be supremely expensive for Adidas, as the company claimed that they will make a loss of £250 million in 2022.
Additionally, in the statement, Adidas also mentioned:
“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.”
As soon as Adidas made the official announcement of dropping their partnership with Ye, Adidas shares fell as much as 8%.
In an earlier interview, the rapper claimed that he could continue to make anti-semitic comments and Adidas wouldn't drop him.
However, Adidas is not the only one to suffer due to this. Forbes has reported that West is no longer a billionaire as the rapper’s net worth has fallen to $400 million.
Adidas, on the other hand, is not the only brand to cut ties with the rapper because of his anti-semitic comments. Previously, Bank JP Morgan and Gap have also ended their relationship with Ye.
Similarly, high-end fashion brand Balenciaga and Talent Scouts Creative Artists Agency also cut ties with West earlier this month. All of this came after he made a series of anti-Semitic online posts earlier this month. These posts also ended up getting his social media handles like Twitter and Instagram suspended.
West has not released any statements on the matter of Adidas dropping him. However, for other brands, he said that it was good that a brand like Balenciaga dropped him, as it wasn’t even that profitable for the rapper.
