Adidas severed ties with Kanye West on Tuesday, despite rising demand to do so in the aftermath of the rapper’s odd anti-Semitic outbursts and public meltdowns.
The apparel brand, who announced last week their 10-year relationship with West was “under review,” said that it “does not “tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech.”
“Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness,” the company said in a statement Tuesday.
Adidas is the latest high-profile brand to break ties or reevaluate its partnership with the rapper-turned-designer following a string of contentious remarks in recent weeks, joining Balenciaga and Vogue.
The shoemakers’ decision came after they faced harsh criticism for remaining silent when the controversy over West first erupted.
Some accused the business of putting profits ahead of ethics by failing to publicly condemn the 45-year-anti-Semitic old’s remarks.
The #boycottadidas hashtag also started trending at one point.
Since 2015, West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, has been launching his Yeezy footwear lines with Adidas.
Upcoming Yeezy collections, which will retail between $200 and $300, are already due to release later this year.
West addressed the idea of Adidas removing him before the formal announcement, telling TMZ over the weekend that the company is “going through legal right now, so anything can happen.”
In that same interview, the father-of-four stated unequivocally that he did not expect to be canceled despite being dumped by major sponsors.
“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 supervise all of his businesses, but she fired him after he refused to repudiate his statements.
“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, including Balenciaga, soon ended their partnerships with him, stating that they “no longer have any relationship nor any plans for future projects related to this artist.”
Last week, a Vogue spokesman informed Page Six that they have no plans to work with the rapper again.
source:nsemwokrom.com