Adidas Yeezy

Adidas Yeezy was a fashion collaboration between sportswear company Adidas and rapper Kanye West. The collection is primarily known for its footwear series, with its sneakers being referred to as Yeezys, although the brand has also produced apparel. The partnership was terminated by Adidas in October 2022 after West made a series of antisemitic remarks.

Yeezy Boost 750.

Adidas announced the collaboration with West in November 2013. The first Adidas Yeezy shoe to launch was Yeezy Boost 750 in February 2015. It featured a suede upper, mid-foot strap, and a full zipper that ran up the back heel. Yeezy Boost 350 was another popular Yeezy shoe that launched in 2015, which Footwear News named shoe of the year. Adidas Yeezy's first line of apparel, Yeezy Season 1, launched in late October 2015. West described it as a “solutions-based” line. Yeezy Apparel was only funded by Adidas through 2016; by that point, West was bankrolling it himself. In 2016, West and Adidas agreed to continue the Adidas Yeezy collaboration through 2026. Adidas described the deal as the "most significant partnership between a non-athlete and a sports brand." 2016 saw the release of Yeezy Boost 350 V2; its first silhouette was "Beluga." In March 2017, the Calabasas apparel line debuted, as did the "dad shoe" trend with the release of Yeezy Powerphase. This trend was furthered with the release of the chunky Yeezy Boost 700 "Waverunner" in November 2017. In 2018, the Yeezy 500 line was introduced in a series of neutral color tones. This line used adiprene soles instead of Boost technology like past Yeezy silhouettes.

Yeezy Foam Runner.

By 2019, Yeezy sales had surpassed $1 billion annually; the collection earned a total of $1.3 billion that year. 2019 was also the year West became Yeezy's creative director, and the year of the first Yeezy Day. Yeezy Day is an annual sale day that usually takes place over the course of two days in the beginning of August. It centers around a number of Yeezy shoe restocks and releases. West later accused Adidas of creating Yeezy Day without his approval. Notable releases of 2019 included Yeezy Slides and the re-release of the Yeezy Desert Boot, which had originally launched in 2015. Also dropped that year were multiple new colorways of Yeezy Powerphases and Boost 350s, 500s, and 700s. In 2020, Yeezy sales reached nearly $1.7 billion. 2020 saw a return of the "dad shoe" trend with the chunky silhouette of the Yeezy Boost 700 MNVN. The futuristic Yeezy Foam Runner was launched in late June 2020. 2021 saw releases including the Yeezy Knit Runner as both a sneaker and a boot, along with the Yeezy NSLTD Boot and multiple new colorway iterations of past Yeezy designs. Production of Yeezys slowed in 2022 as West focused more on the release of his albums Donda and Donda 2. Some of the shoes released that year included the Yeezy 350 V2 CMPCT and Yeezy BSKTBL Knit. Altogether, 236 pairs of Yeezy shoes were released over the course of the Adidas Yeezy partnership.

Yeezy Slides.

In September 2022, West accused Adidas of theft after the company sold shoes resembling Yeezys under other names. The design rights to Yeezys are owned by Adidas, not West; regardless, West began to disparage Adidas's CEO and supervisory board on social media and threatened to boycott the brand, as did other influential celebrity friends of his, like Diddy and Swizz Beatz. He also showed Adidas executives a pornographic film about a woman who was cheated on as a way of expressing his feelings of betrayal with the brand. At the Yeezy Paris fashion show in October 2022, a controversial photo was taken that featured West and conservative commentator Candace Owens wearing shirts that said “White Lives Matter." The photo sparked intense public backlash, with critics calling West racially insensitive. West doubled down by berating said critics and continuing to make other inflammatory statements like calling the Black Lives Matter movement "a scam" and saying he would go “death con 3 on Jewish people.” In mid-October, West appeared on the podcast Drink Champs. During his interview, he promoted conspiracy theories about Jewish people in power and stated, “I can say antisemitic things and Adidas can’t drop me. Now what?” Nine days later, on October 25, Adidas dropped the partnership. The company acknowledged the split by saying, "Adidas 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."

Immediately after ending the partnership, Adidas pulled Yeezy products from retailers and announced it expected to lose $247 million in revenue for the remainder of the year. Adidas later stated that losses in 2023 could reach $750 million if the company decided to destroy unsold Yeezy inventory. However, Adidas CFO Harm Ohlmeyer stated that it was possible Adidas would continue to release Yeezy designs throughout 2023, as the company still owned the rights to the designs. After the partnership was terminated, West and Adidas entered arbitration as required under their contract. Adidas accused West of reducing their multibillion-dollar collaboration to “economic rubble” with his comments, while West said Adidas had devalued Yeezys and that the company’s “greed and opportunism have no bounds." It was agreed that Adidas would release the remaining inventory of Yeezys beginning in May 2023, with the proceeds being split between Adidas, various social justice organizations, including the Philonise & Keeta Floyd Institute for Social Change and the Anti-Defamation League, and West, who is still entitled to royalties. His share is expected to be 15 percent of the profits. Adidas stated that selling the remaining inventory was preferred over destroying or donating it. Yeezy shoe sales totaled about $437 million from May to June 2023. Adidas later revised its earlier projected operating loss of more than $700 million to about $100 million. Adidas dropped a second round of Yeezy releases in August 2023. Its third launch, scheduled for November 2023, was canceled in late October 2023.

In October 2023, a report by The New York Times revealed a long history of antisemitic incidents and remarks made by West since the beginning of the Adidas collaboration in 2013. There were also reports he had engaged in sexually offensive behavior, including forcing Adidas executives to watch pornography during a meeting "to spark creativity" and verbally abusing Adidas employees. Adidas was found to have willfully dismissed these incidents as well as many others that occurred over the years. Instead, Adidas frequently tried to appease West by increasing the production of Yeezys and giving into his various business demands rather than refuse him in the face of his erratic behavior. Former Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted once stated, "We're not signing up to his statements, we're signing up to what he brings to the brand and the products he's bringing out."

On January 31, 2024, Adidas announced it planned to sell its remaining Yeezy inventory throughout 2024 "at least at cost."