The end of the collaboration between singer Kanye West and Adidas caused the brand with the three stripes to lose a lot of money…
Remember. At the end of 2022, the Adidas brand decided to no longer collaborate with Kanye West following his controversial comments on social networks. Unfortunately, this end of collaboration has lost a lot of money to the German giant.
Kanye West and his controversial remarks
Between Adidas and Kanye West, it’s a story that ended on several false notes. Remember, the rapper pissed off the three-stripe brand following walking in Paris with a T-shirt deemed inappropriate.
While Paris Fashion Week was in full swing in October 2022, Kim Kardashian’s ex-husband hosted the YZYSZN9 event. In the middle of the parade, the latter proudly wore a T-shirt on which it was written « White Lives Matters ».
The singer thus parodied the Black Lives Matter movement which had spontaneously expressed its anger in the United States just following the death of George Floyd two years ago, killed by police. The clothing brand Adidas has therefore decided to stop its juicy collaboration with Kanye West.
In a press release made public, the brand wrote that it wanted to keep the rapper away from its commercial partnerships. “Adidas does not tolerate anti-Semitism or any other form of hate speech”wrote the German group.
The latter therefore wrote that they were signing the “immediate end” of the partnership with Ye. The new stage name of the rapper with millions of albums sold.
Adidas clarified that it was “terminating the manufacture of the products” of the rapper’s Yeezy brand. A huge loss, since the collaboration between Adidas and the star has long been one of the most successful in the fashion world.
It was in 2014 that rapper Kanye West decided to offer a pair of sneakers called Yeezy. Very quickly, the latter were hugely successful, so much so that the brand decided to create permanent collections with the fashion designer.
Adidas loses a lot of money because of Ye
Unfortunately, the relationship between the star and the brand deteriorated long before Kanye West’s controversial t-shirt. The rapper had been suspended from Twitter following a series of controversial tweets regarding his in-laws.
By signing the end of their collaboration with the rapper, the German firm therefore suffered a huge loss in 2022. This Thursday, February 9, the group announced that Adidas’ net profit fell by 254 million euros.
As a reminder, the brand had registered a net profit of 1.49 billion euros in 2021. This drop is linked to the end of the collab with the rapper. The group estimates that this divorce should result in “an operating loss of 700 million euros,” Adidas said.
“The numbers speak for themselves. We don’t have the results we should have had,” said new Adidas boss Bjorn Gulden. According to the group’s estimates, turnover should fall by 1.2 billion euros.
As for the operating result, the latter should be around 500 million euros. For Adidas, the Yeezy label created with the rapper represented an important windfall. The net income totaled by the creations of Kanye West therefore represented nearly 750 million euros. A colossal sum that allowed the brand with the three stripes to be more than profitable.
The brand matters, of course, do everything to get up following this immense loss. And why not by collaborating with other celebrities? “I am therefore convinced that over time Adidas will be able to shine once more”, added the new Adidas boss.