Adidas, Gap say they are no longer working with rapper after anti-Semitic comments; Universal Music says he is no longer under contract
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Kanye West publicly aspired to become the Steve Jobs of apparel. His erratic behavior and anti-Semitic comments have cost him key partners, derailed his earnings and jeopardized his future in fashion and entertainment.
Adidas AG ADDYY -1.56% decrease; red down pointing triangle on Tuesday became the latest partner to cut ties with Mr. West, who goes by Ye, citing the musician and fashion-brand owner’s recent string of anti-Semitic comments. In a statement, Adidas said it “does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech.”
Gap Inc., GPS -0.13%decrease; red down pointing triangle which ended its multiyear partnership with Mr. West last month, on Tuesday said it was removing Yeezy Gap products from its stores and shut down the website for the collaboration. Foot Locker Inc. FL -1.31%decrease; red down pointing triangle said that while it remains an Adidas partner, it instructed its retail staff to pull any existing Yeezy product from its shelves and digital sites.
Kanye West earned hundreds of millions of dollars through the yearslong Adidas partnership.
PHOTO: LUCAS JACKSON/REUTERS
Two high-profile athletes—Aaron Donald of the Los Angeles Rams and Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics—said Tuesday in statements posted on Twitter that they are parting ways with Donda Sports, a sports-marketing agency founded by Mr. West earlier this year.
Mr. West continues to own Yeezy LLC, the apparel company he incorporated in 2016, and holds his Yeezy trademark and several others within Mascotte Holdings Inc. Without large industry partners, his future fashion prospects are in question. Working with large fashion houses and retail chains provided the entertainer access to creative talent as well as production and distribution channels to reach consumers.
“I doubt there is an immediate future for Kanye West in fashion,” said Luca Solca, global luxury analyst at Bernstein. “I believe a long period of atonement will be required in West’s case, before any brand will be ready to engage with him again.”
Neither Mr. West nor his representatives responded to requests for comment.
The 45-year-old rapper, who released hit albums and produced tracks for Jay-Z and other stars, has for years talked about climbing the fashion industry ladder. “I believe that Yeezy is the McDonald’s and the Apple of apparel,” said Mr. West in a 2020 interview with The Wall Street Journal. By that point, Mr. West had already made several forays into fashion.
Mr. West worked with Nike Inc. on a much sought-after sneaker line. In 2009, he interned at the Italian fashion house Fendi, alongside Virgil Abloh who years later would launch the fashion line Off-White and serve as Louis Vuitton’s creative director.
The same year, he worked with Louis Vuitton on a line of pricey sneakers, some with details such as dangling tassels and neon-pink soles. His Paris runway debut came in 2011 with the brand DW by Kanye West, though the show was critically panned and the brand never made it off the ground.
Kanye West, who for years talked about climbing the fashion industry ladder, attended the Givenchy show at Paris Fashion Week in October.
PHOTO: JULIEN DE ROSA/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
Items that the artist designed in collaboration with Adidas made their debut in 2015, and the parties entered a long-term partnership the following year. Yeezy products would come to represent roughly 8% of the company’s total sales, according to UBS analysts. Adidas’s sales totaled €21.23 billion in 2021.
Mr. West has earned hundreds of millions of dollars through the partnership, which granted him a 15% cut of the sales of Yeezy products, though Adidas retained ownership of the designs, according to people familiar with the deal.
Yeezy products would come to represent roughly 8% of Adidas’s total sales, according to analysts.
PHOTO: SETH WENIG/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The German sneaker juggernaut underwrote his fashion collections, which were presented as can’t miss fashion-week events with stars such as Beyoncé and Rihanna in attendance. A 2016 collection made its debut at Madison Square Garden and doubled as a listening party for his chart-topping album “The Life of Pablo.”
Mr. West is no stranger to controversy. In 2005 he proclaimed that “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people,” in a television broadcast aiming to raise money for Hurricane Katrina relief. In a 2018 interview with TMZ, he suggested that slavery was a choice, referencing the practice in colonial America and after.
Before the latest controversies, Mr. West had already largely parted ways with the record industry. His Grammy-nominated album “Donda,” which was released in August 2021, fulfilled his contractual agreement as an artist with his longtime label Def Jam Recordings, according to people familiar with the matter. That made him a free agent in the music industry, after entering the Def Jam system in the early 2000s.
The Rise and Fall of Kanye west’s Business Empire
The joint-venture agreement between Def Jam and G.O.O.D. Music, the record label that Mr. West launched, has also ended. Def Jam and its parent Universal Music Group NV still distribute the musical catalog from that joint venture.
“Def Jam’s relationship with Ye as a recording artist, Def Jam’s partnership with the G.O.O.D. Music label venture and Ye’s merchandise agreement with Bravado all ended in 2021,” Universal Music Group said.
Spotify Technology SA Chief Executive Daniel Ek said the recent comments by Mr. West were despicable, but the audiostreaming giant wouldn’t remove the artist’s music from the service because it doesn’t violate the company’s policies. “His comments are absolutely awful, and that is my view and the entire team’s view,” said Mr. Ek on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, Mr. West sent a tweet that read in part that he planned to go “death con [sic] 3 on Jewish people.” In the weeks since, the mogul espoused similar anti-Semitic statements on the “Drink Champs” podcast and in televised interviews.
These comments capped off a controversy-stoking chapter in Mr. West’s public life. On Oct. 3, he wore a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt at his Yzy fashion show in Paris. He has also used social media to rail against Adidas, Gap and other fashion-world figures including Supreme creative director Tremaine Emory and Vogue editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson.
Kanye West in an Oval Office meeting with then-President Donald Trump in 2018.
PHOTO: RON SACHS/ZUMA PRESS
Other companies are dissociating from Mr. West. The RealReal, a luxury consignment website, said on Tuesday it was no longer accepting items associated with Mr. West or the Yeezy brand.
Independent film and television studio MRC earlier this week said it was shelving a recently completed documentary about the entertainer. It said it reached the decision after talks with filmmakers and distribution partners, adding: “We cannot support any content that amplifies his platform.” The talent agency CAA has dropped Mr. West as a client, according to a person familiar with the matter.
While in the past Mr. West’s broad fan base had made him an enticing collaborator for fashion labels, Robert Burke, a luxury industry consultant, said that his anti-Semitic comments were a step too far. Mr. West “has had a good beat on streetwear and on footwear,” he said, but “the talent doesn’t even remotely outweigh the risk that the brand would have by association.”
Balenciaga, which was until recently so closely aligned with the musician that he opened its show at Paris Fashion Week this month, has also cut ties. Mr. West and Demna, Balenciaga’s creative director, worked on a collection—dubbed Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga—that went on sale this year.
A spokeswoman for Balenciaga’s parent company, Kering SA, confirmed the luxury label no longer has any relationship, nor any plans for future projects, with the rapper.
Images of Mr. West modeling in the recent fashion show have been taken down from Balenciaga’s website.