According to a new report, the footwear giant Adidas has not been able to sell its inventory of Yeezy sneakers worth more than $500m after cutting ties with rapper Kanye West.
According to the Financial Times, the German sportswear brand is now trying to sell the Yeezy items under its own brand name “minimise potential losses.” The publication also said Yeezy accounted for 7 per cent of Adidas sales this year, totaling $1.8bn in sales.
Adidas ended its partnership with Kanye West following the rapper’s several antisemitic comments in October.
At that time, the company said in a statement, “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.”
Not only Adidas, but both Balenciaga and Gap stripped off their partnership with West after he made a number of comments targeted at Jewish people – claiming was going to go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE”.
Following the loss of Yeezy’s partnership with Adidas, Forbes severed Ye of his billionaire status from $2bn (£1.74bn) to $400m (£348m).