Adidas plans to sell Yeezys once more—without Kanye West
After severing ties with the antisemitic rapper in October, the company plans to remarket Yeezys
Aux News Adidas
As Adidas ended a lucrative yet turbulent 9-year business partnership with Kanye West—or Ye—the company is looking to move forward without the embattled rapper. With sole ownership over the designs of the shoes created under the brand, Adidas is looking to continue selling the products made under the Yeezy umbrella without its Nazi-tied spokesperson.
“Adidas is the sole owner of all design rights registered to existing product,” Adidas Chief Financial Officer Harm Ohlmeyer said in a recent meeting, per Business Insider. “We intend to make use of these rights as early as 2023.”
The company shares it will save around $300 million a year in royalties and marketing fees as it severs ties with Ye, but this does little to counteract the lost revenue. Yeezy sales accounted for 8 percent of the company’s total sales, or $2 billion in total sales, per CNN. Ending the partnership with Ye back in October cost Adidas $250 million in profit and $500 million in lost revenue for the year.
The question remains: Will people buy shoes under the Yeezy brand without the approval of Yeezy himself? Adidas seems to tell itself yes, even if it won’t be as much as before. For the time being, this seems to be the plan and it’s sticking to it.
At the start of the year, Bjørn Gulden (who’s credited with turning Puma around) will take over as Adidas’ CEO. It couldn’t come at a more crucial time for the brand, as executives now are tasked with turning around a rough year.
In Vogue Business, Gulden says he opposes catering to the singular consumer or the “monobrand strategy” and instead prefers to focus on wholesale relationships with retailers. This ethos operates in opposition to Yeezy’s work as a brand, which pulls in individuals who ascribe themselves to the “hypebeast” lifestyle. Only time will tell what will happen to those funky, funky shoes.
24 Comments
Remarket them as shoes for futuristic sci fi prisons or something?
You’re getting there but those shoes don’t look dumb enough. They need at least 73% more silly.ON PROGRAM!
I thought those were the new Reebok Pumps with new Gen-Xtra ankle support.
‘Those look awesome!’-10 year old me back in ‘89
AFAIK I’ve never seen a pair of Yeezys in the wild in LA, while I see Superstars multiple times a day. Who the fuck is buying $2 billion worth of these? Can’t be all Drake.
I see Yeezys literally everyday in the wild, in SoCal. A few of my buddies are also obsessed, and have a handful of pairs too. Though, one might only be obsessed because he was a Kanye fan (I hope he no longer is) and the other one collects shoes. I think they look terrible, that might be why I notice them lol.
Also, going to the Adidas store, you can see his designs trickle into the other, non-Yeezy shoes. I’m actually kinda surprised they’re making such an announcement when they could just pivot to repurposing the designs under a different line title.
I pretty much exclusively wear Adidas and noticed the same thing whenever I browse for new shoes. As long as my favorites stay unchanged, it’s fine.
Yeah, I don’t go to the store ever, I only wear SSIIs and Stan Smiths from Adidas so I just order ‘em online. Could be there a bunch of Yeezys I don’t recognize, I really don’t check out peoples shoes that much.
Stan Smiths? Adidas makes American Dad themed shoes?
They are the whitest of white dad shoes. My wife took up pickleball and since I’m a creature of habit, I buy the exact same court shoe I’ve been buying since I was a kid. Puma Suedes,All Stars, Superstar IIs, Stan Smiths. Never seen a need to update.
Here in NYC, I see these everywhere in the wild. They’re even selling fake imitation ones on the street now because they’re so popular which makes me wonder if the ones I see people are wearing are real or fake. I even see people wear that line of Crocs he came up with.
Maybe do a hasty re-branding and make “Yeezy” a yummy cheese or cheese-like spread or spray?
Anti-Yeez?
… Yeez Whiz?
… Yeez Nuts.
Stop using Ye’s dead name, you bigots!
Capitalism is a beautiful thing
This whole thing sucks. “Kanye is bad, so we are not going to do business with him, but we are going to still sell his line, promote his works, keep his name and ideas out there, and just keep the money”If you want to make a statement about not being associated with him, great. Then stop selling the shit with his name on it.
That’s one take. Another is that the article clearly states they aren’t his designs but rather they belong wholly to Adidas. Its not his line, its a line of products made and marketed by Adidas that was sponsored/endorsed by him. Yeezy isn’t his name (I know its similar but words matter), instead its a brand owned by Adidas. The money is theirs otherwise he would sue for it.So in effect it goes: This whole thing is awesome! “Kanye is bad, so we are treating him as such. He doesn’t own any of this shit and we’ll be damned if were going to take this hit worse than we have to because he’s such a piece of shit”. This a legal solution available to us because this is the contract he signed and we have a fiduciary obligation to our shareholders”.If you want him to let you handle his anti-semetic schlong then just ask him, don’t post about it here…
I think you misread my take, and I admit it is not clear enough. I am completely cool with them cutting all ties and giving him zilch. What I am saying is that by continuing to sell his line, they are still promoting his name and ideas, even if he is not getting paid. They should stop giving him money AND stop putting anything out there related to him. But they still want the money. The only thing you should think of when you hear “yeezy” is “oh yeah, that racist idiot” not “I’m sure glad Adidas still sells stuff associated with him”.
I guess I get your point. But I disagree that his name is on any of it. Very possible I’m misunderstanding the situation but from my understanding this doesn’t benefit him in any way. Yes to certain degree he will continue to be associated with the brand in the minds of the public, but what they are saying is that they have severed him fully from the product line and wish to continue to sell it. Given that people have have invested in the company it seems fair that they follow whatever course they think is most profitable.I guess my point is that I don’t see the two intertwined the way you do. If anything I think he’d be pissed that Adidas will continue to pull some profit from their prior relationship. I’m not sure that equates to them selling a product with his name on it.I do see where you are coming from now though, so thank you for clarifying.
Make Yeezy the new budget line, like to compete with Skechers and Walmart Air Shaqs