Adidas and Kanye West reportedly reach agreement to sell leftover Yeezy stock
Adidas and Kanye West have reportedly reached a new agreement to sell all remaining leftover Yeezy stock following the official termination of its partnership last year.
Adidas terminated its partnership with West after the American rapper and designer made a series of offensive and antisemitic comments. The German sportswear giant cut ties with Ye with immediate effect, ending production of Yeezy branded products and stopping all payments to West and his companies.
In a previous statement, Adidas said: "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."
According to Wealth, Kanye West and Adidas have recently finalised an agreement that will see the release of the remaining $500 million worth of Yeezy shoes slated for 2023. The renewed contract appears to focus solely on the sale of existing inventory and does not include any provisions for the introduction of fresh YZY clothing or shoe designs.
Earlier this month, Adidas warned of a significant impact to its financial results for 2023 following the write-off of existing Yeezy stock. Should the company decide not to sell or repurpose excess Yeezy stock, revenues would suffer by approximately £1.06 billion (€1.2 billion) and operating profit by approximately £441 million (€500 million) this year.
If the decision materialised, the sportswear giant would expect to see an operating loss of £618 million (€700 million) in 2023.
Bjørn Gulden, CEO of Adidas, said: "The numbers speak for themselves. We are currently not performing the way we should. 2023 will be a year of transition to set the base to again be a growing and profitable company. We will put full focus on the consumer, our athletes, our retail partners and our Adidas employees.
Together we will work on creating brand heat, improve our product engine, better serve our distribution and assure that Adidas is a great and fun place to work. We need to put the pieces back together again, but I am convinced that over time we will make Adidas shine again. But we need some time.”
TheIndustry.fashion has reached out to Adidas for comment.
