Adidas cuts ties with Ye over ‘unacceptable’ anti-Semitic comments

Adidas has terminated its partnership with controversial rapper and fashion designer Ye in the wake of the anti-Semitic remarks he made in public.

Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, has been facing growing fallout after his comments over the past few weeks targeting Jewish people, including a tweet that resulted in Twitter suspending his account.

Film and TV studio MRC said on Monday it won’t release a recently completed documentary made with Ye. Over the past month he has been dropped by his concert-touring representative, and luxury label Balenciaga said it has stopped working with him.

The German sneaker maker has been facing mounting pressure to sever ties with the Gold Digger hit maker, and on Tuesday finally acceded, confirming in a statement it had cut ties with Ye.

“Adidas does not tolerate anti-Semitism 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.

“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.

“This is expected to have a short-term negative impact on the company’s net income in 2022 given the high seasonality of the fourth quarter.  

“Adidas is the sole owner of all design rights to existing products as well as previous and new colourways under the partnership,” it said.

— Additional reporting by Bloomberg