adidas Severs Ties With Ye, Claims Ownership Of All Yeezy Designs

On Tuesday morning, adidas announced it had terminated its contractual relationship with the being formerly known as “Kanye West,” effective immediately.

Announcement of the decision cites intolerance of antisemitism as the reason it was made, but the company had been reviewing its relationship with Ye for the past month, a process prompted by the adidas Yeezy frontman’s public slander and ridicule of the Three Stripes and several of its employees.

“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.”

Additionally, the German sportswear behemoth shared that it would be stopping all production of Yeezy-branded product and payments to the former “Mr. West” and his companies. In the short term, the decision to terminate its business with Ye is projected to have a “negative impact of up to €250 million on the company’s net income in 2022,” according to an official press release. Over the past week alone, adidas AG’s stock has dipped from approximately €118 to €95. The Three Stripes has been struggling with its finances since early 2020, which its relationship with Kanye West didn’t help.

“I can say antisemitic s*** and adidas cannot drop me,” said West during his latest appearance on the Drink Champs Podcast.

Some netizens have taken to social media to express disgust over the fact that it took adidas as long as it did to sever ties with the 45-year-old creative. Others have rallied behind the once-presidential hopeful, claiming corporate America breaking up with Ye proves Donda’s son right.

Although Kanye West has championed himself and his Yeezy team for their innovative, revitalizing designs, the Three Stripes took the announcement of it ending its deal with Mr. West as an opportunity to clarify matters: “adidas is the sole owner of all design rights to existing products as well as previous and new colorways under the partnership. More information will be given as part of the company’s upcoming Q3 earnings announcement on November 9, 2022.”

There’s no telling what will happen next, but it’s likely both entities will be fine.

UPDATE October 25th, 2022:
Instagram page @sneakerlegal has shared looks at 10 patents for adidas Yeezy designs.