Adidas to drop Kanye West after his anti-Semitic outbursts
Adidas plans to sever ties with Kanye West after facing mounting pressure to do so in the wake of the rapper’s bizarre anti-Semitic outbursts and public meltdowns, a report revealed Tuesday.
The apparel brand, who announced last week their 10-year relationship with West was “under review,” could announce the move as early as Tuesday, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News.
Adidas is the latest high-profile brand, including Balenciaga and Vogue, to cut ties or reconsider their relationships with the rapper-turned-designer following his slew of controversial remarks in recent weeks.
The shoemaker’s decision came after they faced heavy backlash for staying silent when the outrage against West first erupted.
Some accused the retailer of putting profits over ethics for not publicly condemning the 45-year-old’s string of anti-Semitic tweets.
The #boycottadidas hashtag also started trending at one point.
West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, has been releasing his Yeezy sneaker lines with Adidas since 2015.
Upcoming Yeezy collections, which are set to retail between $200-$300, are already scheduled to drop later this year.
West had addressed the possibility of Adidas dropping him ahead of the official announcement, telling TMZ over the weekend that the brand is “going through legal right now so anything can happen.”
Elsewhere in that interview, the father-of-four was adamant he didn’t think he would be canceled — despite being dropped by the big-name brands.
“I ain’t losing no money,” he said. “The day I was taken off the Balenciaga site, that was one of the most freeing days.”
West added that businesses were only cutting ties with him to simply “score points.”
“We here, baby, we ain’t going nowhere,” he insisted.
West briefly hired Johnny Depp’s lawyer Camille Vasquez to oversee all of his businesses, but she dropped him in a matter of days after he refused to retract his words.
“I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE,” West wrote in an Oct. 9 tweet — making an erroneous reference to the military term “defcon,” short for Defense Readiness Condition, or how fast the U.S. armed forces could be deployed in response to a threat.
He earlier shared a since-deleted screenshot on Instagram of an iMessage exchange in which he accused Sean Combs, aka Diddy, of being controlled by Jews.
Asked if he was sorry for his remarks, West told The Post columnist Piers Morgan last week: “No. Absolutely not.”
A number of brands quickly moved to end their partnerships with him, including Balenciaga, who said they “no longer any relationship nor any plans for future projects related to this artist.”
A Vogue spokesperson told Page Six last week that they, too, had no plans to work with the rapper again.
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