Adidas has announced it is ending its partnership with Kanye West, effective immediately. The announcement came on Tuesday morning, just weeks after the company said it had placed its working relationship with Ye “under review” following a series of offensive and anti-semitic comments the rapper had made on social media platforms and in interviews.
In a statement from Adidas, the firm shared, “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.”
They added, “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.”
News of Adidas dropping its partnership with West comes just days after talent agency CAA also confirmed it had cut ties with Ye, followed by the news that Johnny Depp’s former lawyer, Camille Vasquez, quit working with the Grammy winner after he refused to take back his anti-semitic comments back and apologize.
Last week, fashion house Balenciaga and fashion magazine Vogue announced they had also ended their long-standing work relationship with West following his anti-semitic comments, which Ye continues to stand by to this day.
Interestingly enough, earlier this month, Ye stressed that he could say anti-semitic things, “and Adidas can’t drop me. Now what?” The remark appeared to have angered a lot of people — not only because the comment about Jewish people certainly didn’t sit right with most celebrities who are of Jewish descent in Hollywood but also because Ye had given the impression he was untouchable.
Adidas begged to differ. According to CNBC, the company’s shares fell 4% during the morning hours of trading in Frankfurt, Germany, with Adidas predicting that this would have a short-term negative impact in the amount of $246 million on net income in the fourth quarter.
News of Kanye’s partnership being terminated comes just one day after a fellow Adidas employee, Sarah Camhi, went viral on LinkedIn, as she shared her frustration pertaining to the firm’s decision not to part ways with Ye.
“It’s been 14 days since Kanye started spewing anti-Semitic rhetoric and adidas has remained quiet; both internally to employees as well as externally to our customers,” she said. “We need to do better as a brand. We need to do better for our employees and we need to do better for our communities. Until adidas takes a stand, I will not stand with Adidas.”