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Tag: Yeezy

  • Adidas likely to lose profit over Yeezy fallout

    Adidas likely to lose profit over Yeezy fallout

    Adidas has issued a warning over the potential negative effects on its bottom line of terminating its collaboration with musician and fashion designer Kanye West in November.

    The company could lose hundreds of millions of dollars this year if its stock of Yeezy sneakers is not sold, according to the new leader of the company.

    Ye West, who works for the sportswear firm, was fired after he made anti-Semitic remarks on social media.

    The corporation has issued a profit warning four times since July with this news.

    “The numbers speak for themselves. We are currently not performing the way we should,” the company’s chief executive Bjørn Gulden, said in a statement.

    Adidas said it was still deciding whether to scrap its remaining Yeezy stock and would take a €500m ($536m; £443m) hit to its profits if it is all written off.

    On top of that the company expects a shake-up of the business to cost another €200m.

    That could mean it is pushed to an operating loss this year totalling €700m, the company warned.

    Adidas is expected to return to profit in 2024, it added.

    At the same time the company revealed that its operating profit for last year had fallen to €669m, two thirds lower than in 2021.

    US-traded shares in Adidas fell by almost 9% after the announcement.

    In October, the company announced that it was ending the highly profitable partnership with West after he caused an outcry over his anti-Semitic comments.

    While the decision to end its partnership with Yeezy had a major negative impact on Adidas, it has also faced other challenges over the last year.

    Mr Gulden joined Adidas at the start of this year from rival Puma after his predecessor was ousted in the wake of a series of profit warnings.

    In March, the company announced that it would close its shops in Russia and suspend its online store there as it joined a raft of global brands that pulled out of the country in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.

    The firm’s business in China was also impacted by Beijing’s strict zero Covid measures that saw major cities across the country put into lockdown.

    Source: BBC

  • Kanye West reportedly played porn and his own sex tapes for Yeezy employees, they claim in open letter to Adidas

    A new Rolling Stone report sheds more light on Kanye West’s alleged mistreatment of Yeezy employees, as numerous former staffers accuse Ye of repeatedly showing them “hardcore” pornography during work hours.

    A variety of West’s actions are detailed in an open letter issued Tuesday by former high-ranking Yeezy staff members to the executive board members and CEO of Adidas.

    Titled “The Truth About Yeezy: A Call to Action for Adidas Leadership,” the letter—per RS, which obtained a copy—demands that Adidas leadership address “the toxic and chaotic environment that Kanye West created” as well as a “very sick pattern of predacious behavior toward women” who worked under Ye.

    According to numerous former staffers, Kanye frequently discussed porn and played explicit videos during staff meetings, displayed intimate photographs of ex-wife Kim Kardashian in job interviews, and even played his own sex tapes for Yeezy team members.

    “He showed me the video of Francesca Le, a buff porn star with a strap-on dildo fucking another girl in the ass,” one past collaborator told Rolling Stone. “He’s like, ‘What do you think of it?’ Not laughing at all.”

    “The oversexualized behavior has been consistent since the beginning,” said another former senior employee. “I don’t know that it ever went away.”

    One employee said Kanye expressed to colleagues his desire to make a sneaker into which he could ejaculate. “Not a sex-toy sneaker but something that you were so into that you would wanna have an intimate relationship,” she explained. “He’d be, like, ‘literally fuck.’ He would be very clear on what that meant.”

    While Kanye’s pornography displays were far beyond acceptable, ex-staffers maintain that Adidas’ senior executive team overlooked his unprofessionalism. Other alleged incidents and behaviors included Ye playing adult videos in meetings with the excuse that he needed them “in the background to keep [him] focused,” and having “exploded at women in the room with offensive remarks,” including calling an employee a “fat slut.”

    “The most troubling behavior that should have been flagged by the executive team very early in the partnership is his manipulative and fear-based approach to leading the team, all while trying to assert dominance over Adidas employees in closed rooms,” the letter stated.

    Though the group is requesting that the executive board members issue a public apology to the Yeezy team for enduring “Kanye’s terrorizing behavior,” the open letter focuses the blame on Adidas leadership.

    “As much as we all would love to solely blame Kanye,” the letter says, “the undeniable truth is that the Adidas executive team and the board have been huge enablers.”

    One prior staffer observed that there are “many forms of abuse, and this is the kind of abuse that’s so many kinds of abuse combined into one,” while another said West uses “tactic[s] to break a person down and establish their unwavering allegiance to him, testing and destroying people’s boundaries.”

    A spokesperson for Adidas issued a statement to RS on the company’s behalf, writing, “Adidas does not tolerate hate speech and offensive behavior and therefore has terminated the adidas Yeezy partnership. We have been and continue to be actively engaged in conversations with our employees about the events that lead [sic] to our decision to end the partnership. They have our full support and as we’re working through the details of the termination, we have been clear that we want to keep our employees’ talent and skills within the organization.”

    Read the full report here. Also included is an incident where West is alleged in 2019 to have texted a then-employee about a nearly forgotten sneaker prototype, “We really need this shoe to be done because all I think about is Kim’s ass and this shoe.” This propelled the design “from no work to the number-one most important model,” only for it to never go to market.

    Source: Complex.com

  • Adidas plans to still use Yeezy designs as early as next year

    Adidas’ plans for the future of the Yeezy business in the wake of the termination of its partnership with Ye continue to take shape, with the brand breaking down its outlook to investors today in its Q3 2022 earnings call.

    In the conference call, Adidas CFO Harm Ohlmeyer said that the end of the Yeezy deal will have a short-term negative impact of up to $250 million on the company’s net income this year as Yeezy releases account for 33% of the brand’s total annual revenue. The brand said it will save €300 million in royalty payments and marketing fees after canceling its deal with Ye.

    Adidas’ CFO echoed that the brand owns the rights to all Yeezy designs and intends to make use of them as early as next year. In the conference call, Adidas said that it’s developing a plan to make use of existing Yeezy inventory in 2023. The brand has already asked retailers to stop the sale of these products and, in some cases, reached out about recalling the shoes.

    Adidas’ decision to terminate its partnership with Ye was announced on Oct. 22 after months of him publicly bashing the global sportswear company and making antisemitic comments on social media and various interviews. Ye first signed with Adidas in 2013 and then entered into a long-term partnership with the brand in 2016 that was reportedly set to expire in 2026. Previously, he had a collaborative partnership with the Three Stripes’ chief rival, Nike, which was highlighted by their Nike Air Yeezy releases.

    “I want to repeat very clearly that we are the sole owner of the intellectual property rights to the current and future colorways and we have a lot of things in the archive,” the CFO said, “so there are plans that we are vetting right now.”

    Source: Complex.com

  • Horse Kicks – $1,200 horse sneakers are a real thing that exists

    Horse Kicks are just what they sound like – sneakers for horses. Created from popular human models like Air Jordan or Yeezy Boost, each pair sells for at least $1,200.

    With some very few notable exceptions, horseshoes have remained virtually unchanged for hundreds of years, but that is about to change thanks to sneaker customizing expert and The Shoe Surgeon SRGN Academy alumni, Marcus Floyd. Using deconstruction and reconstruction, Floyd has created several pairs of equine sneakers that retain the elements that usually make brands like Air Jordan, Yeezy, or NewBalance650 stand out. At the same time, these are essentially horseshoes, so they also meet the unique ergonomics of horse hooves.

    For the launch of his new business, Horse Kicks, Marcus Floyd has created several pre-made styles for the Fall 2022 season, including horse sneakers inspired by popular models like the  Air Jordan 1 High “Court Purple”, Adidas YEEZY BOOST 350 V2 “Dazzling Blue”, or  Aimé Leon Dore x New Balance 650.

    Starting on October 24, custom Horse Kicks will be available for order via the company’s website, with prices starting at an eye-watering $1,200. But if you’re the kind of person who likes to geat up close and personal with speakers before buying them, Marcus Floyd will have a booth at this year’s Breeders’ Cup World Championships in Kentucky, on November 4 and 5.

    You’re used to seeing people lined up outside sneaker shops for the newest collectible creations, now get ready to see equine sneakerheads do the same thing.

    Source: Complex.com

  • Gap ‘taking immediate steps’ to remove Yeezy Gap product from stores following Kanye’s Anti-Semitic remarks

    Gap has issued a new statement in the wake of continued fallout from the artist formerly known as Kanye West’s anti-Semitic comments. In it, the company said “immediate steps” were now being taken to remove Yeezy Gap product from its stores.

    The statement, shared on Tuesday, noted that the Yeezy Gap partnership (initially slated to span a decade upon its announcement back in 2020) had previously seen its end announced in September.

    “Our former partner’s recent remarks and behavior further underscore why,” the new statement reads. “We are taking immediate steps to remove Yeezy Gap product from our stores and we have shut down [the Yeezy Gap site]. Antisemitism, racism, and hate in any form are inexcusable and not tolerated in accordance with our values. On behalf of our customers, employees, and shareholders, we are partnering with organizations that combat hate and discrimination.”

    Also on Tuesday, Adidas announced the immediate termination of its Yeezy deal, with Forbes later reporting this had resulted in Ye no longer being a billionaire.

    The latest Gap statement follows a report from Women’s Wear Daily last week revealing Balenciaga doesn’t have “any plans for future projects” involving Ye. The Kering-owned house had worked extensively with Ye, including in the form of the Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga project.

    Ye, meanwhile, was recently announced to be acquiring right-wing social media platform Parler. The CEO of Parlement Technologies is George Farmer, the husband of Candace Owens.

    Ye and Owens were photographed together at the YZY SZY 9 presentation in Paris earlier this month, both wearing a widely criticized design from the show featuring the “white lives matter” hate slogan.

    Source: Complex.com

  • Kanye West ‘no longer a billionaire’ as net worth drops to $400m after Adidas deal termination, ‘Forbes’ says

    The artist formerly known as Kanye West is “no longer a billionaire,” per Forbes.

    The update arrives shortly after Adidas announced the immediate termination of its deal with Ye following a string of comments that have been widely called out as anti-Semitic. According to the publication, Ye is worth an estimated $400 million without the Adidas deal, which it valued at $1.5 billion. In a recent Piers Morgan interview, notably, Ye said he had “maybe only $120 million” in his account.

    “Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech,” a rep for the company said in a press release shared on Tuesday, adding that Ye’s recent remarks were “unacceptable, hateful, and dangerous.” As previously reported, Adidas had formally placed the Yeezy partnership “under review” earlier this month.

    Several other collaborators have similarly distanced themselves from Ye, including Balenciaga. The Shop, meanwhile, announced its decision earlier this month to not air an interview with Ye. In a statement to Andscape, SpringHill Company CEO and Shop co-host Maverick Carter said Ye had used this would-be appearance “to reiterate more hate speech and extremely dangerous stereotypes.”

    Jeezy was among those also featured on the episode in question. During a subsequent interview on Hot 97, Jeezy was asked about the shelved appearance, although he declined to get into any details.

    “I just know that I came there, we did it, and I got a call and they said, ‘It’s a wrap,’” Jeezy said, adding that he “didn’t take it personally.”

    Source: Complex.com