Adidas plans to relaunch Kanye West’s shoe designs after cutting ties with the disgraced rapper — and said it can ditch the Yeezy name in the method.
The German sportswear giant said Wednesday that it intends to strip the shoes of their “Ye” branding but keep the identical designs. The move could save Adidas over $300 million in royalty payments.
“Let me be clear, we own all of the [intellectual property], we own all of the designs, we own all of the versions and recent colorways, It’s our product,” said Adidas’ Chief Financial Officer Harm Ohlmeyer on the decision. “We intend to utilize these rights as early as 2023.”
The announcement comes just over two weeks after Adidas dropped its collaboration with rap star West, also often known as “Ye”, following his series of anti-Semitic tirades. Adidas and West first partnered to make the Yeezy shoe line in 2013.
The corporate announced on its quarterly earnings call on Wednesday that it intends to strip the shoes of their “Ye” branding but keep the identical design. GC Images
The corporate faced criticism for not divorcing the previous billionaire sooner, which many chalked as much as the indisputable fact that Ye-branded shoes raked in almost $2 billion in sales last 12 months for Adidas, in accordance with Morgan Stanley.
To be able to recoup those earnings, Adidas will first need to overcome Ye loyalists, a lot of whom should not blissful in regards to the company’s decision to proceed to sell the shoes.
You possibly can’t have your cake and eat it too
You possibly can’t cut all ties, cut his royalties then sell the product that’s attached to him
No one gives a fuck in the event that they own the designs legally, They support Ye
You will note… every post will likely be straight hate. Ye fanbase is insanely loyal https://t.co/NIOezZzNgh
— LA Three (@La3Life) November 9, 2022
“Adidas is dumb as f–k if you happen to sell Yeezy w/ no Kanye, the backlash is gonna be crazy,” said one Twitter user.
“Bad business practices. I’m not buying Yeezy products without Ye.” one other tweet read.
Many users warned that the brand new Adidas-branded shoes could be inconceivable to market, as any social media posts could be riddled with hate from Kanye West fans.
The shoe giant is already facing backlash online.Getty Images
Kanye West himself has denounced previous attempts from Adidas to market Yeezy-like shoes without his permission.
In June, the corporate released slides that resembled a Yeezy design. West called them “a fake Yeezy made by Adidas themselves” and later said, “I’m not standing for this blatant copying no more.”
