Adidas will stop the adidas Yeezy business with immediate effect after a thorough review.
West appeared at his Yeezy Season 9 Paris Fashion Week show donning a long-sleeve shirt printed with the phrase “White Lives Matter,” which is considered a “hate slogan” by the Anti-Defamation League, an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States specializing in civil rights law.
Gap, Balenciaga and Vogue have all ended their relationships with West, who now goes by the name Ye.
Adidas said on its website “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. 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.”
Kim Kardashian wrote in Twitter Monday “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.”
Adidas first signed a deal with Mr West in 2016, after working with him since 2013, hailing it as “the most significant partnership ever created between an athletic brand and a non-athlete”.
Cutting ties with the rapper will be a major blow for Adidas, which has previously described the collaboration as “one of the most successful in our industry’s history”.