Fellow sneakerheads, it seems that shit has finally hit the fan. Ye – aka, Kanye West – has ultimately taken it too far. No more YEEZY. No more Christian Genius BILLIONAIRE. And, no more Kanye West sneakers. Rumors of Kanye leaving Adidas have been going around for some time. But, now the Three Stripes came out with the checkmate, game-over move. Adidas terminates Yeezy partnership, there’s a €250 million loss in it, and other brands are following suit!
Fam, this is real. This is NOT a drill. The day we’ve been speculating about has finally come. Granted, we never truly 100% believed it will happen. But, Adidas has officially cut ties with Kanye West, and things are WEIRD! Ye has become one of the most hated people on social media, and is feeding the cancel culture with TONS of content.
ADIDAS TERMINATES YEEZY PARTNERSHIP
So, Adidas terminates Yeezy partnership. But, many people would argue that this was a long overdue move! Back in September, GAP terminated its partnership with Ye and is still taking action. Also, there’s the whole Kurt Zouma thing. Adidas – fittingly – dropped Zouma within a couple of days of his animal abuse video. But, took them weeks to take action against Ye’s posts on antisemitism, hate, and racism.
Therefore, this brings us to the events leading to the long-expected end of the collaboration. For the past month, Ye has been posting a series of hate-filled posts, provoking and taunting Adidas, and much more. What we used to brush off as “Kanye being Kanye” has officially crossed the line. Here’s everything that happened leading up to Adidas’ decision:
The Events Leading to the End
Oct 3
Models at the YZY show at Paris Fashion Week walk the runway wearing “White Lives Matter” shirts.
October 6
Adidas puts the Yeezy partnership under review.
Oct 8
Ye Tweets that he would soon go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,” followed by: “You guys have toyed with me and tried to blackball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.”
The hashtag #boycottadidas starts trending on Twitter.
October 10
Twitter and Instagram restrict Yeezy’s accounts.
Ye posts a vlog on YouTube about how it is “his time to shut up and start doing what everybody’s wanted him to do for the longest time”. He ends the vlog with almost 2-minutes of footage of him standing all alone.
October 16
In an episode of Drink Champs, Kanye claims that he has a chokehold on Adidas saying: “I can say anti-Semitic things, and Adidas can’t drop me. Now what? Now what?”
Well, now Adidas terminates Yeezy partnership. That’s “now what?”, Ye.
Also, he went on to enrage the world even more by blaming George Floyd’s death on Fentanyl and not the police. The clip featured Kanye saying the following:
“I watched the George Floyd documentary that Candace Owens put out. One of the things that his two roommates said was they want a tall guy like me, and the day that he died, he said a prayer for eight minutes,” West told Drink Champs. “They hit him with the fentanyl. If you look, the guy’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that.”
Note: medical experts in the trial against the Minnesota police officer testified that there were traces of Fentanyl in Floyd’s system. HOWEVER, Floyd died from lack of oxygen from the officer’s knee on his neck – according to the coroner’s report!
October 25
Adidas terminates Yeezy partnership.
ADIDAS’ STATEMENT
So, after Adidas terminates partnership with Ye, they came out with a statement that tapped into the following points:
- Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech
- Adidas terminates Yeezy partnership, ends Yeezy production, and stops all payments to Ye
- The brand will suffer up to €250 Million in net income
- Adidas is currently the sole owner of all design rights to existing, previous, and upcoming Yeezy products
The Three Stripes signed Kanye in late 2013 making this the end of a decade-long era. However, their partnership still had until 2026 for it to officially run its course according to their contract. Yeezy sneakers generate about €1.5 BILLION ~ $1.47 BILLION in annual sales for Adidas. That’s about 7% of Adidas’ total revenue! So, this will be a definite hit for the sneaker titan!
Other Brands Terminate YEEZY Partnership
Balenciaga
On October 21st, Balenciaga terminates Yeezy partnership in a statement saying:
“Balenciaga has no longer any relationship nor any plans for future projects related to this artist”.
MRC Entertainment
Also, on October 24th, MRC Entertainment announced that they would be shelving their Kanye West documentary.
Vogue
Before the whole Adidas ends partnership with Ye, Vogue announced that they have ‘no intention’ of working with Yeezy again.
CAA
Creative Artists Agency also confirmed on Monday that Ye is no longer a client of theirs.
GAP
And, after Adidas terminates YEEZY partnership, GAP announced that they will be removing Yeezy GAP products from their stores. Also, they will be shutting down YeezyGap.com. So, as of October 25th, GAP no longer sells Yeezys.
FootLocker
Finally, to further cement the decision, FootLocker pulls all Yeezy sneakers from stores and online.
NOW WHAT?
So, Adidas terminates YEEZY partnership. It’s official. It’s done. Nothing we can do about it anymore. Not much we wanna do about it, TBH! But, what does this mean for us sneakerheads? Yeezys have been the greatest drivers of hype, demand, and sneaker resale! What does this MEAN?
Well, sneakerheads always find a way. We survived a PANDEMIC! Therefore, we’ll survive this!
