The Adidas-West partnership saga: How the rapper ended the Adidas/Balenciaga / CAA deal and what to do with it
Recently, Ye said “I can say antisemitic s*** and Adidas cannot drop me,” during a tirade against Jews on the Drink Champs Podcast. He said he would go death con 3 on Jewish people.
Adidas was left with a dilemma when it cut ties with Ye over the rapper’s antisemitic remarks, and what to do with all of its branded products associated with Ye.
Adidas and West have been partners since the company signed his brand away from Nike. In 2016, Adidas expanded its relationship with the rapper, calling it “the most significant partnership ever created between a non-athlete and an athletic brand.”
Shares of Adidas fell about 5% in Frankfurt. Adidas will reveal more information about the financial consequences of its partnership with Ye in its earnings report on November 9.
The list of brands distancing themselves from West is growing. Balenciaga and Vogue publicly cut ties last week, and on Monday, talent agency CAA dropped West as a client. The company said that it would be shelving the documentary about West.
The Ye saga showed the importance of vetting celebrities thoroughly and avoiding people who are too controversial or unstable to work with brands like Adidas and Gap.
There is room for some tension in fashion but it must not cross the line of decency and basic respect for humanity. He said that companies will get stung if they become overly reliant on a difficult personality to drive their business.
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The German sportswear giant helped make the rap superstar a billionaire, thanks to his partnership with them.
The company said thatYe’s recent actions have violated the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.
Ye was isolated by the company in the wake of his comments about slavery and a leaked interview with Tucker Carlson in which he said, “I’d prefer my kids knew Chanukah than Kwanzaa.”
The shoe factory of the brothers Adolf and Rudolf was converted into a munitions plant during World War II, as a result of their membership in the Nazi party.
The two started manufacturing footwear, including spiked shoes, in Germany in the 1920’s and went global after Jesse Owens won four gold medals in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
An acrimonious rift between them led to the two splitting off: Adolf Dassler, known as Adi, founded Adidas in 1949. His older brother, called Rudi, started a rival shoemaker called Puma across the river.
Under German law, inciting hatred against people of a certain race or religion, including denying the Holocaust and spreading Nazi propaganda, is criminalized and can be punishable with prison time.
In response to the social media companies locking down his accounts, Ye announced that he was purchasing the conservative-friendly Twitter knock-off company Parler, in a move that puzzled tech observers. Details of the transaction have not been made public.
The rapper has said he intends to build his own “Yecosystem,” which would include his own factories and retail stores as a way of fully separating himself from the corporate world.
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Retail professionals say that destroying the unsold items is not a viable strategy, due to the financial loss as well as the possible backlash.
“There’s no way to make a living out of this at all,” Matt Powell said, who has worked with Adidas. The question is can they make up for the bad things that will happen?
“All of this work is extremely labor intensive and it can only be done one shoe at a time,” he said. “So, it’s very costly to go through this process.”
A foam runner has sculpted lines and a monochrome finish. Consumers may still associate the shoe with its former designer, even if it was Adidas’ own version of the foam runner.
It’s a good idea to reuse products at a deep discount. So companies look to smaller markets, likely in developing countries, to make a profit without hurting their image in big consumer markets such as the U.S. and Europe.
He added that removing the Yeezy labels will still be important to this strategy, and there is still a chance that even smaller markets may not be interested in the discounted products given its reputation.
On the other hand, Fisher said donating the goods “is much better for reputation and for sustainability,” and it would be a viable option for Adidas if it decided not to turn a profit.
Demand for Yeezy sneakers appears to have been sparked by the controversy. Last week, John Mocadlo, chief executive of Impossible Kicks, a large online reseller of high-end sneakers and clothing, said demand for the shoes had surged 30% since around last October.
China has been the main reason for the company’s sales decline in the last year due to the zero- Covid policy.
“2023 will be a year of transition to set the base to again be a growing and profitable company,” Chief Executive Officer Bjørn Gulden said in a statement last month.