Reportedly, Kanye West has reached an agreement with sportswear giant Adidas to sell $500m worth of leftover Yeezy stock.
Last year, West and Adidas parted ways after the musician made a series of anti-Semitic comments. However, since the split, Adidas have found themselves in financial trouble because the brand had previously invested heavily in future Yeezy stock which they could no longer sell. Now, it seems they have come to an arrangement to help recuperate their losses.
The new reports come after a worrying statement from Adidas’ chief executive Bjørn Gulden earlier this month. “The numbers speak for themselves. We are currently not performing the way we should,” he said.
“This would lower revenues by around €1.2billion and operating profit by around €500million [£443m] this year,” the company’s recently published financial guidance document reads (via NME). “Against this background, Adidas expects currency-neutral sales to decline at a high-single-digit rate in 2023. The company’s underlying operating profit is projected to be around the break-even level.”
As a result of the report, Adidas weighed up on whether to sell the remaining stock after its profit for last year had fallen to €669m, and seemingly, they have now decided to put money first. Allegedly, the new deal will see the release of non-branded Yeezy trainers, and the company plans to produce no new designs.
When they cut ties with Kanye, they said: “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.”
The statement continued: “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.”
