On Wednesday (November 09), Adidas announced it will continue to release the ‘Yeezys’ shoes, which it has been selling with Kanye West since 2015, despite the business split with the rapper, designer and entrepreneur. Adidas is “the sole owner of the registered rights to the existing products,” said Harm Ohlmeyer, Adidas’ CFO.
Adidas split from Kanye West on October 25, largely over his anti-Semitic comments. Even before that, the rapper was not on the same wavelength as the company. In June 2022, West complained about the Adidas 22 sandals, which he considered visually too similar to his Yeezy Slides. The rapper acquired the rights to the entire Yeezys sandals line in 2020. In September, West uploaded a fake newspaper article to his Instagram account saying that Adidas CEO Kasper Rørsted had passed away. The post has already been deleted.
Harm Ohlmeyer also emphasized that Adidas “plans to use the rights to the product as early as 2023.” Because they own “all versions and new colourways. it is ours [geistiges Eigentum]“. When asked what exactly was planned with the shoes, he simply replied: “We are working through all the options. When the time is right, we will give more details.”
Ohlmeyer also added that Adidas will probably make around 502 million euros less in sales this year, but will save up to 302 million euros in expenses next year 2023 due to the separation from Kanye West. The sum came from the marketing costs of the shoes as well as royalties that they had to pay to Kanye West. Because of the collapsed deal with Adidas, he lost a sum of 1.5 billion euros of his fortune and is no longer a billionaire.