Kanye West loses billionaire status as Adidas terminates partnership

Adidas has terminated its partnership with rapper turned fashion designer Kanye West following his antisemitic remarks.

After the German sportswear brand put their collaboration, which manufactured the hot-seller Yeezy sneakers, under review at the beginning of this month, the company has now called off the partnership with the rapper, citing his anti-semitic remarks and hate speech as the reason.

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“Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech,” said the company on Tuesday.

“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,” it stated.

For Adidas, ending the partnership and the production of Yeezy branded products, as well as stopping all payments to Ye and his companies, will have a ‘short-term negative impact’ of up to 250 million euros on net income this year, the company noted.

It is pertinent to mention that Adidas poached Ye from sportswear rival Nike in 2013 and extended to a new long-term partnership in 2016. The hot-selling product of the partnership, Yeezy sneakers, cost between $200 and $700, and are estimated to generate about 1.5 billion euros in annual sales for the German label, a little over 7% of its total revenue.

To note, the end of the multi-million dollar deal will knock off the billionaire status of the musician on the global list, as his net worth dropped to $400 million with the hit of the partnership worth $1.5 billion.

As per the foreign publication, the remainder of his wealth comes from real estate, cash, his music catalogue and a 5% stake in his ex-wife Kim Kardashian’s shapewear brand called Skims.

Representatives for Ye are yet to comment on the matter.

For the unversed, the anti-semitic remarks have previously costed Ye his partnerships with international labels like Gap and Balenciaga, while his social media handles were also restricted earlier this month due to the same.

Additionally, American lawyer, Camille Vasquez, who was hired to manage legal business matters of Kim Kardashian’s ex, dropped him from the clientele on Tuesday, after he refused to retract the anti-semitic comments.