German sportswear giant Adidas said Tuesday it was ending its partnership with Kanye West after a series of anti-Semitic outbursts by the controversial US rapper.
Recent comments by West – now known formally as Ye – were “unacceptable, hateful and dangerous,” Adidas said in a statement. “After a thorough review, the company has taken the decision to terminate the partnership with Ye immediately.”
Adidas said it would “end production” of the highly successful “Yeezy” line designed together with West and “stop all payments to Ye and his companies.”
The abrupt end to the collaboration between the sports outfitter and rapper would slash Adidas’s net income in 2022 by “up to 250 million euros ($246 million),” the company estimated.
Adidas’s decision to dump the artist was “overdue,” said Josef Schuster of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.
“For weeks, West has caused worldwide furore with his anti-Semitic remarks,” Schuster said, adding that the rapper’s comments had become “intolerable”.
Adidas began a review of its relationship with West earlier this month after he appeared at a Paris fashion show wearing a shirt emblazoned with “White Lives Matter,” a slogan created as a backlash to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Days later he was locked out of Twitter and Instagram for threatening to “Go death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,” using a reference to US military readiness.
Comments made by West “violate the company´s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness,” Adidas said Tuesday.
The artist was associated with rival sportswear company Nike for years but broke away in 2013, lending his name to Adidas as they launched their first Yeezy shoe together in 2015 – a partnership that went on to make him a billionaire.
Along with Beyonce, Stella McCartney, and Pharrell Williams, West’s has been one of the top names used by Adidas to boost sales, especially online.