Adidas Ends Kanye West Partnership After Antisemitic Comments
The company said it "does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech."
Adidas is terminating its longtime and lucrative partnership with Kanye West.
The move to cut ties with the rapper comes after his repeated antisemitic comments, including a video of West boasting that he could get away with hateful comments against the Jewish community without getting dropped by the sportswear giant.
On Tuesday, Adidas released a statement, explaining that the company "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 company added in a statement posted on the website.
"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."
The partnership has been West's biggest brand deal to date, reportedly bringing in up to $2 billion a year, per The Washington Post, with financial analysts telling NBC News that the decision to cut ties is a costly one with possible losses of $240 million for the brand.
After West’s initial tweets, where he threatened to go "death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE,” celebrities called for a boycott against the rapper, putting pressure on any company that was in business with him.
Friends star David Schwimmer invited his followers to join him and the Anti-Defamation League in demanding that Adidas cut ties with the Donda artist earlier this week.
West’s words led to banners being unfurled over a Los Angeles freeway that featured antisemitic language with the words "Kanye is right about the Jews,” prompting his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, to speak out.
“Hate speech is never OK or excusable. I stand together with the Jewish community and call on the terrible violence and hateful rhetoric towards them to come to an immediate end,” she wrote in a post on her Instagram Story.
Khloe Kardashian also tweeted a response, posting an image saying, "I support my Jewish friends and the Jewish people," which appears to have started with Jessica Seinfeld, an author and entrepreneur and wife of Jerry Seinfeld. The couple is Jewish and very proud of their heritage.
Adidas joins Balenciaga, the first brand to cut ties with the artist, along with CAA, the talent agency that represented him for touring, per Deadline.
West ended the two-year-partnership between his fashion brand YEEZY and Gap earlier this year.
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