Adidas plans to ditch Kanye West and continue to sell Yeezys under new branding

Adidas will continue to release more of Kanye West‘s signature shoe products, but without him, Insider reports.

The company made the announcement on its quarterly earnings call on November 9, saying that early next year, West’s partnership with the brand will be no more. Adidas cut ties with West on October 25 in the wake of a string of antisemitic rants from the rapper and fashion designer.

“Adidas is the sole owner of all design rights registered to existing product,” Adidas Chief Financial Officer Harm Ohlmeyer said. “We intend to make use of these rights as early as 2023.”

Speaking to reporters after the call, Ohlmeyer said the company owns “all the versions and new colorways. It’s our IP.” An exception the move could be the Yeezy Slide, which West owns the patent to.

From Insider:

When Adidas announced its split with Ye, the company said it expected its bottom line to take a $247 million hit this year. Wednesday’s earnings report was in-line with that forecast. Ohlmeyer added the company’s annual revenue would be roughly $502 million lower than expected this year.

But Adidas will save roughly $302 million in 2023 because of royalties and marketing costs it will no longer pay to support the Yeezy business. When Kanye left Nike for Adidas in November 2013, he criticized Nike – and then-CEO Mark Parker – for not paying him royalties on sold shoes.

Read the full report over at Insider

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.