Adidas terminates partnership with Kanye West over hate speech post

Sportswear maker, Adidas, says it has ended its partnership with popular American rapper, Kanye West, now known as Ye, over his recent anti-Semitic post.

Adidas made the announcement via a statement issued on Tuesday.

The rapper, in the now-deleted post, had said: “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 on Jewish People.”

This was in an apparent reference to a United States military readiness code known as DEFCON.

However, the company, on Tuesday, said it “does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech”, adding that Kanye West’s recent comments were ‘unacceptable, hateful and dangerous.”

Adidas noted that the comments violated the company’s “values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness”.

The company added that sales and production of Ye’s Yeezy branded products have stopped as well as payments to the famous singer and his companies, noting that it will take a €250 million hit ($246 million) to its fourth-quarter sales.

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Adidas said it will release additional information about the financial implications of dissolving its partnership with Ye in its upcoming earnings report on November after its shares fell about 5% in Frankfurt.

Adidas has partnered with Kanye West since 2013 when the company signed his brand away from rival Nike.

In 2016, Adidas expanded its relationship with the rapper, calling it “the most significant partnership ever created between a non-athlete and an athletic brand.”

But Adidas put the partnership under review in early October after he wore a ‘White Lives Matter’ T-shirt in public.

The Anti-Defamation League categorises the phrase as a “hate slogan” used by White supremacist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan.

Recently, Kanye West said: “I can say antisemitic s*** and Adidas cannot drop me,” during a tirade against Jews on the Drink Champs Podcast.

Adidas has now joined the list of brands distancing themselves from the singer.

Balenciaga and Vogue publicly cut ties last week, while talent agency, CAA, on Monday, dropped Ye as a client.

Production company,  MRC, said it was also shelving a documentary on West.

The Star