In 2022, Adidas severed ties with Kanye West, now known as Ye, for making a series of antisemitic comments. He tweeted to say he was “going death con 3 ON JEWISH PEOPLE”, before saying he was not “Anti-Semitic because black people are actually Jew also”.
The suspension of the deal resulted in Adidas ending the production of Yeezy-branded products. Adidas also stopped all payments to West and his companies with “immediate effect” following his comment.
“Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech,” Adidas said in a statement. “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.”
According to Forbes, West’s deal with Adidas accounts for $1.5 billion of his net worth. “With that gone, Ye is no longer a billionaire,” Forbes said in 2022. “It caps a stunning, self-induced downfall for one of the brashest and most volatile personalities to have graced Forbes’ pages.”
The magazine further estimated West’s net worth to be around $400 million, down from nearly $2 billion. “Losing Adidas was the final nail in Ye’s net-worth coffin”, said Forbes, adding, “Now the road has ended.”
What remains of the rapper’s financial empire is his “real estate, cash, his music catalogue, and a 5% stake in ex-wife Kim Kardashian’s shapewear firm, Skims.”
Aside from Adidas, other brands severed ties with West. Balenciaga announced that it was ending its relationship with the rapper in the wake of his anti-Semitic remarks and “White Lives Matter” shirt. Production company MRC and Creative Artists Agency also cut ties with him. Also, Gap announced that it was removing Yeezy products from shelves and production and closing the rapper’s Yeezy Gap online store.
Almost two years after Adidas severed ties with him, West revealed in a recent interview how devastating the move was to his fortune. According to the Chicago native, he lost some $8 billion following the cancellation of his partnership deal with Adidas, but he is optimistic about recouping his losses after deciding to sell his own merchandise on Yeezy.com for $20 a piece.
“I can stand up proudly and say, you know what, I lost $8 billion… We still gonna get that money back and still be in a better position than Adidas someday,” West said during an interview on BigBoyTV.
Indeed, West is on course to recoup his losses. He recently generated millions of dollars in product sales in one day following his Super Bowl LVII ad to promote Yeezy products.
“I said boom, we’re going to do this for $20, then we did the Super Bowl and the fact that I was able to show factual $19.3 million of sales in one day,” West explained on BigBoyTV. “The next day was $15 million. The next day was $11 million, but in one day at the same time as the music was coming out. At the end of the day, this was just us and the people.”