Adidas Announced the Termination of Cooperation with Kanye, and the Future of Yeezy Shoes is Uncertain

German sports brand giant Adidas announced that the brand will terminate its cooperation with American rapper and fashion designer Kanye West.

On the evening of October 25, 2022, Beijing time, the German sports brand giant Adidas announced that the brand will terminate the cooperation with the American rapper and fashion designer Kanye West (Chinese nickname Kanye).

“Ye’s recent remarks and actions are unacceptable, hateful and dangerous,” Adidas said in a statement. “Adidas will stop producing Yeezy-branded products and will stop all payments to Ye and its companies.”

Kanye West, formerly known as Kanye West (now known as Ye), was born in Atlanta, USA in June 1977. He is a famous American rapper and music producer.

In addition, the Yeezy series designed by Kanye is one of the most popular shoes in the fashion shoe market in recent years.

The termination of cooperation between Adidas and Kanye is not surprising.

In mid-September, American fashion retail brand Gap and Kanye terminated their cooperation.

Brand President and CEO Mark Breitbard said in an internal notice to employees: “While both parties share a vision to bring high-quality, on-trend, functional design to all through Yeezy Gap’s unique omnidirectional experience, But the two sides disagree on how to work together on how to achieve this vision.”

After that, Kanye didn’t seem to mean to restrain himself. Instead, he published a number of radical remarks involving racial discrimination on social media platforms. His account was subsequently blocked by Twitter, Instgram and other platforms.

Kanye’s behavior has also aroused dissatisfaction with cooperative brands and brokerage companies.

On October 23, Kering, the parent company of French luxury brand Balenciaga, announced that the brand would terminate its cooperation with Kanye after the latter made controversial remarks related to racial discrimination.

Kering Group said: “Balenciaga and Kanye West no longer have any relationship, and there will be no future cooperation plans.”

Not long ago, CAA, the brokerage company that Kanye signed with, also announced the termination of the relationship with Kanye.

In fact, before the controversial remarks of racial discrimination, the contradiction between Kanye and Adidas has been around for a long time.

In 2015, Kanye collaborated with Adidas to launch the Yeezy Boost series, which is also known as “coconut shoes” in the Chinese shoe circle.

In 2019, Yeezy’s sales exceeded $1 billion. In the Forbes Celebrity TOP100 list that year, Kanye ranked third with a proud income of 150 million US dollars.

However, Kanye, who has made a lot of money, is not satisfied and wants to get more from Adidas.

In 2020, Kanye requested to enter the Adidas board of directors, otherwise the cooperation will be terminated, but Adidas officials did not respond to this request.

In September of this year, Kanye said on his personal social media platform that Adidas wanted to spend $1 billion to buy Yeezy, but he was not willing.

Kanye wrote in the dynamic: “I really want to create something that changes the world and leave it to my children. They (Adidas) want to buy all my shares with $1 billion, but my copyright next year $500 million in fees.”

Earlier this month, Adidas said that it was evaluating the partnership with Kanye, “After many attempts to resolve the current issues, we have decided to evaluate the partnership. During the evaluation period, we will continue to jointly manage the current Cooperative business. The cooperation with Ye is one of the most successful in the history of the group. But we also understand that all successful cooperation is based on mutual respect and shared values.”

According to the original agreement, the contract between Adidas and Kanye will not expire until 2026. In its most recent fiscal year, Yeezy sold $1.7 billion.