Many companies broke ties with Kanye West following the -Black and anti-Semitic comments he made last year. But the brand that may have lost the most is Adidas, which projects it’ll lose over a billion dollars as a direct result of cancelling its Yeezy collaboration.
In a press release, Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden revealed they’re struggling to sell existing Yeezy products.
He claimed Kanye’s controversial behavior had a "significant adverse impact from not selling the existing stock,” and that "the numbers speak for themselves. We are currently not performing the way we should.”
The press release admitted that Adidas anticipates to have a much lower revenues in 2023. The company says its goal is to simply breakeven amid the fallout. In total, Adidas expects to lose $1.3 billion USD this year as a result.
“2023 will be a year of transition to set the base to again be a growing and profitable company,” the CEO continued. “We will put full focus on the consumer, our athletes, our retail partners and our adidas employees.”
“Together we will work on creating brand heat, improve our product engine, better serve our distribution and assure that adidas is a great and fun place to work,” he added.
Kanye’s Yeezy brand has also taken a hit. Sales have reportedly declined, as many retailers have stopped carrying Ye’s products coupled with the damage to his reputation.
In December, it was reported that Yeezy was being evicted from his headquarters after falling behind on rent.
The same month, it was also revealed that Yeezy owes $600,000 in tax debt to the state of California. Kanye himself has admitted he owes $50 million in taxes to the IRS, an issue his bank accounts have been frozen over.
After Adidas cancelled its partnership with Yeezy last fall, Forbes revealed that Kanye no longer qualifies as a billionaire. Since then, the legal and financial problems have kept piling up for Kanye. He’s facing multiple lawsuits, including a $250 million defamation case filed by George Floyd’s family.
The rapper is also being sued by his ex-manager for $4.5 million over breach of contract and unpaid wages. However, the case has had trouble moving forward, since the plaintiff’s legal team says they can’t locate Kanye to serve him court documents.
Even Kanye’s own lawyers said they couldn’t get a hold of him for months. However, they recently found him at an address he’s not believed to frequent often, only to give him notice that the firm will no longer represent him.
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