Kanye West’s exceptional creativity with Adidas gave birth to: Yeezy
However, the polarising rap star’s antisemitism outbursts last year forced the company to cut ties with him.
The sportswear giant’s CEO Bjoern Gulden, appointed just two weeks later to Ye’s abrupt exit, admitted the fashion mogul’s unusual talent to defend his company’s past strong links with the Yeezy creator despite his “erratic behavior” reports.
“As difficult as he was, he is perhaps the most creative mind in our industry,” the chief executive said in the company’s annual shareholder meeting.
Moreover, after Ye was shown the door, Adidas faced a record loss because Yeezy brought in 10% of Adidas’ annual revenue last year.
Also, the company expected the lost revenue to translate into $246 million in losses in the first year alone.
Further, a whopping $1.3 billion decline will cause more trouble to the multi-billion company as Yeezy clothes and shoes will not be available, not to mention a drop of $534 million in operating profits.
However, the company has ended the impasse by moving forward to sell some Yeezy products and donating the profits to charity.
“What we are trying to do now over time is to sell some of this merchandise… burning the goods would not be a solution,” the chief executive referred to one of the options mulled for the ‘Yeezy problem.’
Secondly, Adidas’ defensive posture also can be explained by a recent lawsuit by its investors, which left them in a tight spot.
The shareholders sued the company, alleging the company looked the other way on the father-of-four’s reported abnormal behaviour while “routinely ignoring” complaints against him since 2018.
The investors did not place West’s name in the lawsuit, but they claimed Adidas “failed to take meaningful precautionary measures to limit negative financial exposure” if the partnership ended.
