Adidas ended its lucrative partnership with the rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, over his offensive and antisemitic remarks, which drew widespread criticism from Jewish groups, celebrities and others on social media who said the German sportswear company was being too slow to act.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The sneaker giant became the latest company to cut ties with Ye, who was suspended from Twitter and Instagram this month over antisemitic posts that the social networks said violated their policies. The outcry swelled after demonstrators on a Los Angeles overpass unfurled a banner Saturday praising Ye\u2019s antisemitic comments.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Adidas said it expected to take a hit of up to 250 million euros ($246 million) to its net income this year from the decision to immediately stop production of its line of Yeezy products and stop payments to Ye and his companies.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cAdidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech,\u201d the company said in a statement Tuesday. \u201cYe\u2019s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company\u2019s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Jewish groups, noting Adidas’ past links to the Nazi regime, said the decision was overdue. The World Jewish Congress noted that during World War II, Adidas factories \u201cproduced supplies and weapons for the Nazi regime, using slave labor.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have liked a clear stance earlier from a German company that also was entangled with the Nazi regime,\u201d said Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, the main Jewish group in the country where Adidas is headquartered.<\/p>\n
For weeks, Ye has made antisemitic comments in interviews and social media, including a Twitter post earlier this month that he would soon go \u201cdeath con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,\u201d an apparent reference to the U.S. defense readiness condition scale known as DEFCON.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The rapper has alienated even ardent fans in recent years, teasing and long tinkering with albums that haven\u2019t been met with the critical or commercial success of his earlier recordings. Those close to him, like ex-wife Kim Kardashian and her family, have ceased publicly defending him after the couple\u2019s bitter divorce and his unsettling posts about her recent relationship with comedian Pete Davidson.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ye has told Bloomberg that he plans to cut ties with his corporate suppliers. After he was suspended from Twitter and Facebook, Ye offered to buy conservative social network Parler.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
An email message sent to a representative for Ye was not immediately returned.<\/p>\n
Adidas, whose CEO Kasper Rorsted is stepping down next year, said it reached its decision after conducting a \u201cthorough review” of its partnership with Ye, whose talent agency, CAA, as well as Balenciaga fashion house had already dropped the rapper.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Despite the growing controversy, Allen Adamson, co-founder of marketing consultancy Metaforce, believes that Adidas\u2019 delayed response was \u201cunderstandable.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a hugely profitable, edgy brand association,” Adamson said. \u201cThe positives are so substantial in terms of the audience it appeals to \u2014 younger, urban, trendsetters, the size of the business. I\u2019m sure they were hoping against hope that he would apologize and try to make this right.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Adamson noted that Adidas was facing pressure from everywhere including customers, employees and stakeholders.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s the short-term profits of selling shoes, and then there is the long-term equity of the Adidas brand,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In the hours before the announcement, some Adidas employees in the United States had spoken out on social media about the company’s inaction.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Sarah Camhi, a director of trade marketing at the company who described herself as Jewish, said in a LinkedIn post that she felt \u201canything but included\u201d as Adidas.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“remained quiet; both internally to employees as well as externally to our customers\u201d for two weeks after Ye made his antisemitic remarks.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The rapper, who has won 24 Grammy Awards, has been steadily losing audience on radio and even his streaming numbers have declined slightly over the last month. According to data provided by Luminate, an entertainment data and insights company whose data powers the Billboard music charts, his airplay audience slipped from 8 million in the week ending Sept. 22, to 5.4 million in the week ending on Oct. 20. The popularity of his songs on streaming on demand also went down in the same period, from 97 million to 88.2 million, about a 9% drop.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ye has earned more of a reputation for stirring up controversy since 2016, when he was hospitalized in Los Angeles because of what his team called stress and exhaustion. It was later revealed that he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
He recently suggested slavery was a choice and called the COVID-19 vaccine the \u201cmark of the beast,\u201d among other comments. He also was criticized for wearing a \u201cWhite Lives Matter\u201d T-shirt to his Yeezy collection show in Paris.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
MRC studio announced Monday that it is shelving a complete documentary about the rapper. JPMorganChase and Ye have ended their business relationship, although the banking breakup was in the works even before Ye\u2019s antisemitic comments.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Gap said Tuesday that it is also taking immediate steps to remove Yeezy Gap products from its stores and has shut down yeezygap.com in light of West\u2019s comments. The clothing retailer said that in September it was ending their relationship but at the time, it said that it planned to continue to sell Yeezy Gap products that were in the pipeline.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Jewish groups have pointed to the danger of the rapper’s comments at a time of rising antisemitism. Such incidents in the U.S. reached an all-time high last year, the Anti-Defamation League said in a letter to Adidas last week urging it to break with Ye.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, applauded the company’s decision to drop Ye.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a very positive outcome,” he said in a statement Tuesday. “It illustrates that antisemitism is unacceptable and creates consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n
The saga of Ye, not just with Adidas but with brands like Gap and Balenciaga, underscores the importance of vetting celebrities thoroughly and avoiding those who are \u201coverly controversial or unstable,\u201d said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cCompanies or brands that fail to heed this will get stung, especially if they become overly reliant on a difficult personality to drive their business,\u201d Saunders said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Source: Voice of America<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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