Adidas Urged to Ditch Kanye After Antisemitic Outbursts

Adidas has remained silent following mounting pressure to cut ties with Kanye West (now known as Ye) after the rapper and fashion entrepreneur repeatedly doubled down on a shocking stream of antisemitic commentary across interviews and social media posts in recent days. At the start of October, the multinational sportswear brand put its distribution deal with West's Yeezy line "under review" when the artist wore a “White Lives Matter” t-shirt design at Paris Fashion Week. Since then, West has made a series of antisemitic statements during high-profile interviews with Piers Morgan and Chris Cuomo. He was also banned from Twitter after saying he was about to go “Death con 3" on Jewish people. Facebook and Instagram blocks against West followed swiftly. Talent agency CAA has stopped representing the artist in the past month, as per The Hollywood Reporter. Adweek reached out directly to Adidas about its business relationship with West. At the time of this writing, no response had been issued. Despite being a lightening rod for controversy as his fame as a rapper saw him transitioning into a tabloid celebrity, West has had little trouble attracting and maintaining associations with major fashion brands. But his staying power to smooth over any outrage appears to have reached a new point. Kanye West and the Double-Edged Sword of Influencer Partnerships Brands have started to distance themselves from West. Case in point: luxury fashion house Balenciaga said it no longer had any relationship or future plans to work with the musician. Earlier this year, West and Gap "wound down" their decade-long brand partnership after he accused the retailer of breaching its contract. Under pressure On Oct. 16, West boasted on podcast Drink Champs: "I can say antisemitic things, and Adidas can’t drop me.” The clip has since been removed. On Oct. 20, Jewish NGO the Anti-Defamation League published an open letter imploring Adidas to reconsider supporting the Yeezy product line and issue a statement making clear that it had "no tolerance whatsoever for antisemitism." “In light of Kanye West’s increasingly strident antisemitic remarks over the past few weeks, we were disturbed to learn that Adidas plans to continue to release new products from his Yeezy brand without any seeming acknowledgment of the controversy surrounding his most recent remarks," the letter read. A subsequent gathering of white nationalists on a bridge in Los Angeles, who held banners saying, “Kanye is right about the Jews," has added fuel to the fire with a petition to get Adidas to drop West now standing at 6,000 signatures. On Monday, #BoycottAdidas was trending on Twitter. All this comes against the backdrop of West agreeing to buy Parler, a social platform popular among U.S. rightwing conservatives. Tough times for Adidas Yeezy—the Adidas product line over which West has creative control—has proven to be one of Adidas' most successful brand partnerships. Since its launch in 2013, the sneaker and product launches have created real buzz with some selling out within 10 minutes. However, the almost decade-long partnership has been strained for some time. In June the rapper accused the brand of ripping off his designs, mentioning departing CEO Kasper Rørsted by name. The publicity comes at a difficult time for Adidas which just issued its second profit warning in the space of three months. The business has lowered its operating profit forecast for 2022 from 7% to 4% over concerns that too much stock will be left over following sluggish sales in China and a slump in Western Europe. Though Adidas does not break out sales of different product lines, estimates have pitted that Yeezy is worth around 10% of the brand's total sales.

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Adidas Urged to Ditch Kanye West Deal Following Antisemitic Outbursts

The athletic apparel giant remains silent weeks after putting Yeezy distribution partnership 'under review'

Rebecca Stewart

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Rebecca Stewart