Highlights
- Kanye West claims Adidas is suing him for $250 million, and said on Instagram that the brand is retailing unauthorized Yeezy colorways.
- Adidas terminated its Yeezy partnership (valued at $3.2-$4.7 billion) due to Kanye's anti-Semitic statements.
- Kanye expressed frustration with Adidas for allegedly making unauthorized Yeezy colorways and not paying him.
- According to Complex.com, there is no evidence of Adidas suing Kanye.
According to the rapper himself, Adidas is suing Kanye West for $250 million — and West took to Instagram on February 26th to voice his opinion on the matter.
In recent years, Kanye has been embroiled in a number of controversies, many of which originated with off-color statements made by West.
At the same time, Kanye maintained a long-standing yet tense partnership with Adidas, and the brand manufactured his "Adidas Yeezy" range.
The conflict between Adidas and Kanye is as sprawling as the extent of their previous collaboration, and it has quite a few twists and turns.
Let's get into it.
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The rapper says he narrowly avoided bankruptcy after his Super Bowl ad garnered millions in sales for Yeezy.Adidas And Kanye: A Brief History
In February 2015, Kanye West's first collaboration with Adidas dropped, marking the start of a years-long fashion partnership between the brand and the rapper.
Wikipedia's entry about Adidas Yeezy recapped the line, pieces included in it, its widespread popularity, and non-exclusive usage of the "Yeezy" moniker:
"Adidas Yeezy (or just Yeezy) was a fashion collaboration between American rapper, designer, and entrepreneur Kanye West and German sportswear company Adidas. It offered sneakers in limited edition colorways, as well as shirts, jackets, track pants, socks, slides, lingerie and slippers.
"The first shoe model ("Boost 750") was released in February 2015. In 2020, Forbes described Yeezy's rise as 'one of the great retail stories of the century.' Yeezy influenced and inspired a multitude of other fashion brands.
"Outside of the former Adidas collaboration, Yeezy is the name of Kanye's company Yeezy LLC, and is not connected to Adidas."
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If you're looking for affordable Yeezys (and are flexible in terms of color) these Yeezys are nothing short of a steal.Adidas' partnership with Kanye was not just massively popular with sneakerheads and West's fans, it was incredibly lucrative for both parties as well.
Although developments in the interim have made sales figures for Adidas Yeezys difficult to find, an October 2022 ABC News piece delved into sales and the size of the brand collab.
According to ABC, in 2021, financial news outlet Bloomberg quantified Adidas' Yeezy sales, reporting:
[In 2021], Yeezy was valued at between $3.2 billion and $4.7 billion by Switzerland-based investment bank UBS, Bloomberg reported.
The Yeezy line accounts for roughly $1 billion to $2 billion in annual sales for Adidas, according to Evercore ISI analyst Omar Saad.
In the same article, the outlet briefly explained why Adidas abruptly ended its partnership with Kanye, citing a string of anti-Semitic statements:
"Yeezy, a footwear and apparel partnership between Ye and Adidas that launched in 2015, will end its business immediately over hateful speech and actions undertaken by the rapper, Adidas said in a statement [in October 2022]."
"The company will stop production of all Adidas Yeezy products and halt payments to Ye, the statement added."
On October 25th 2022, Adidas issued a statement entitled "Adidas Terminates Partnership With Ye Immediately"; it read:
"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.
"After a thorough review, the company has taken the decision to terminate the partnership with Ye immediately, end production of Yeezy branded products and stop all payments to Ye and his companies. adidas will stop the adidas Yeezy business with immediate effect.
"This is expected to have a short-term negative impact of up to €250 million on the company’s net income in 2022 given the high seasonality of the fourth quarter.
"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."
In May 2023, a number of outlets reported that Adidas was left with $1.3 billion worth of Yeezys, and that the brand had yet to decide what to do with them.
Later that month, a Forbes blogger reported that Adidas planned to sell its remaining Yeezy stock, and pledged to donate a portion to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
2:03
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On February 26th, Bloomberg reported that Adidas planned to sell off "controversial" Yeezys, in an effort to offset the financial fallout of its sudden breakup with Kanye.
Not long after the news about Adidas' Yeezy drop began circulating, Kanye shared an Instagram reel addressing the story:
In the caption, West summarized much of what he said in the clip, writing: "adidas is selling fake Yeezys and not paying me and suing me at the same time."
In the video, Kanye said:
"Let me explain really clear to you guys what’s happening with Adidas. It’s - not only are they putting out fake colorways that are non-approved, they’re suing me for $250 million, and they’re also not paying me for these shoes that they’re putting out that have my name on it.
"And they’re using contract clauses and 50 years of business experience to [redacted] an artist, one of y’all favorite artists, right in front of y’all in broad daylight."
2:03
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As the Wendy Williams doc was about to air, an unnamed “team” claiming to represent her put out a shady press release about her cognitive health.On the same day, Kanye shared another post to Instagram about his frustration with Adidas; in addition to legal matters, West repeatedly mentioned designs and colors that he had not approved.
In a caption that has since been edited, West called upon his fans to object to Adidas' ongoing sale of Yeezys, and he wrote:
"Anybody who loves Ye would not buy these fake Yeezys I never made these color ways I’m not getting paid off of them and adidas is suing me All these celebrities and the public will stand against a T shirt or the color of my hat but when yall see me have my children hidden from me or see an actual Fortune 500 company [redacted] one of your heroes in real life don’t nobody say nothing or do nothing[.]
"As far as the system goes What yall gone do now Take my album down again Freeze my accounts again Threaten people to not work with me again All the new non approved 350’s are cooorny[.]"
Kanye – who now prefers to go by "Ye" – is well known to be particular about his preferences, and his repeated mention of unapproved colorways lent some credence to his claims.
As for Adidas suing Kanye, Complex.com reported that there was "no evidence" such a lawsuit exists – which does not rule out the possibility of ongoing litigation.
Adidas had neither confirmed nor denied Kanye's claims at the time of publication.
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