Adidas ends Ye partnership after controversies

Adidas has terminated its partnership with Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, after the American rapper and designer made a series of offensive and antisemitic comments.

The German sportswear giant has cut ties with Ye with immediate effect, which sees Adidas end production of Yeezy branded products and stop all payments to Ye and his companies.

In a 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."

Adidas is of the view that it owns the intellectual property rights to the products from the collaboration.

Ye began working with Adidas in 2013 and the two parties formalised their relationship two years later in what has been a hugely lucrative partnership covering footwear and clothing. The artist had previously worked with Nike on the Nike Air Yeezy between 2007 and 2009.

Adidas said it expected the decision to terminate the agreement to have a short-term negative impact of up to €250 million on its net income in 2022, "given the high seasonality of the fourth quarter".

More information will be given as part of the brand's Q3 earnings announcement on 9 November 2022.

The news comes after Balenciaga made the decision to drop Ye last week. The brand's parent company Kering said the French fashion house would no longer be working on projects with him.

In June 2020 Ye signed a 10 year deal with Gap, which he terminated last month accusing the retailer of "substantial noncompliance" with the partnership agreement.