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Kanye West ordered Adidas to ‘start to make new designs’ – hours after he was embarrassingly escorted out of the headquarters of rivals Sketchers, amid the rapid implosion of his business empire.
On Wednesday night he also appeared to reference his declining financial clout, noting: ‘I haven’t got super model pu**y in over a month. Please send help.’
His girlfriend of the past few weeks, Brazilian 24-year-old Juliana Nalu, is a model.
West, 45, on October 9 tweeted that he would go ‘death con 3’ on ‘JEWISH PEOPLE,’ an apparent reference to Defcon, the U.S. military defense readiness system.
His Twitter and Instagram accounts were blocked in response and his lucrative deals with Adidas, Gap, Balenciaga and Vogue all abruptly ended – but the rapper was unrepentant, refusing in multiple interviews to apologize.
West on Monday was dropped by Adidas, but on Tuesday an analyst said that the German-based sportswear company intends to sell existing Yeezy product designs using its own branding.
The company said it would cease production of Yeezy-branded products and halt all payments to West and his businesses, but added that it is the owner of the Yeezy design rights.
‘Adidas is the sole owner of all design rights to existing products as well as previous and new colorways under the partnership,’ the company said.
West on Wednesday issued his first response to their statement.
Kanye West on Wednesday evening issued his first response to being dropped by Adidas on Monday – a move which cost him $1.5 billion
West is seen on October 19 with his new girlfriend, Brazilian model Juliana Nalu, 24, at a Beverly Hills restaurant
‘As to Adidas, you can start to make new designs for footwear, apparel and accessories immediately,’ he wrote in a text to a ‘Quinn Emmanuel’, screenshotted and shared to Instagram.
West has previously been represented by law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, but Alex Spiro, a partner at the firm, said he was not involved.
West ‘asked me to be his attorney but the representation never formalized,’ said Spiro, whose other clients include Elon Musk. ‘I do not represent Mr. West.’
West, in the text, continued: ‘As to Gap, the non-compete expires December 15, 2022.
‘You own the Yeezy name and all trademarks associated with Yeezy.’
West on Wednesday was removed from Forbes’ list of billionaires, with the magazine concluding that without Adidas he is worth $400 million.
His fortune comes from real estate, cash, his music catalog and a 5 percent stake in ex-wife Kim Kardashian’s shapewear firm, Skims.
The deal with Adidas brought West an estimated $1.5 billion.
On Wednesday afternoon, West was embarrassingly escorted out of Skechers headquarters after showing up unannounced to pitch his Yeezy brand, one day after being dropped by Adidas and having his songs banned by Peloton.
He was taken out by two ‘executives’ according to a statement released by the company Wednesday afternoon.
Skechers representatives said in a statement: ‘Considering Ye was engaged in unauthorized filming, two Skechers executives escorted him and his party from the building after a brief conversation. Skechers is not considering and has no intention of working with West.
‘We condemn his recent divisive remarks and do not tolerate antisemitism or any other form of hate speech. The Company would like to again stress that West showed up unannounced and uninvited to Skechers corporate offices.’
Kanye West was spotted looking in good spirits at a bagel shop on Wednesday before his visit to Sketchers
He was seen near a parking lot before he was escorted out of Sketchers HQ
Kanye West, pictured on October 21, was escorted out of the building by ‘executives’ Wednesday after showing up unannounced to pitch Yeezy after he was dropped by Adidas
Skechers officials worked quickly to remove West from the Manhattan Beach building and release a statement saying they do not condone hate or antisemitism of any kind
The firestorm involving the rapper started when he took to Twitter to say he wanted to go ‘death con 3’ on Jewish people who had apparently wronged him
West may have faced additional opposition if he had gotten a preapproved sit-down meeting with Skechers executives as the CEO Robert Greenberg and current President Michael Greenberg are both Jewish.
The rapper’s removal from the shoe brand’s office comes mere hours after Adidas announced that it will continue to sell Yeezy products while removing the rapper’s moniker.
Management said that they will sell the items under their own brand at the beginning of 2023, according to analysts.
Adidas broke off their mega-million dollar deal with Ye Tuesday after pressure from fans over the rapper and designer’s recent antisemitic comments.
‘I can say antisemitic things and Adidas can’t drop me,’ Ye had previously stated.
‘Looking ahead, on our understanding, the company will not sell any Yeezy-branded products and all Yeezy products will be branded under Adidas brand,’ Morgan Stanley analyst Edouard Aubin said in a note Tuesday, published by Bloomberg.
The company currently owns the rights to existing products made by the rapper and the Yeezy brand, Adidas officials confirmed.
‘Adidas is the sole owner of all design rights to existing products as well as previous and new colorways under the partnership,’ the company said in their statement Tuesday announcing their separation with Ye.
Audin and Piral Dadhania, an analyst for RBC, say this allows the German sportswear brand to continue selling the products with their own label.
‘Adidas has the rights to existing Yeezy product designs and can sell these using Adidas branding (not Yeezy branding) following the termination of the Yeezy partnership, which Adidas intends to do’ in the first quarter of next year,’ Dadhania said.
German sporting goods behemoth Adidas has terminated its partnership with Kanye West amid controversial behavior from the American rapper and designer. A statement posted in the media section of its website called his comments ‘unacceptable, hateful and dangerous’
German sporting goods behemoth Adidas has ended its partnership with Kanye West amid controversial behavior from the American rapper and designer
Ye was recently photographed smiling despite an onslaught of legal headaches over his antisemitic statements
‘Speaking to the company, it believes it can limit the loss of revenues through this strategy, and will also save on expenses related to royalty and marketing fees no longer payable in 2023,’ the RBC analyst said.
Another major loss for the rapper came in the form of a ban from popular fitness equipment company, Peloton, who said they will no longer play any of his songs.
Peloton confirmed in a statement to PeloBuddy that they have ‘indefinitely paused’ the inclusion of any songs by Ye in their classes.
‘We take this issue very seriously and can confirm Peloton indefinitely paused the use of Kanye West’s music on our platform, the statement said.
‘This means our instructors are no longer using his music in any newly produced classes and we are not suggesting any class that includes his music in our proactive recommendations to Members.
‘You should know this was a decision we made immediately following his remarks. Again, thank you for sharing your concerns and thank you for being a Member of our Peloton community.’
One Peloton instructor, Alex Toussaint, went so far as to comment on the
‘Cause I love everybody, I want to make sure everybody feels safe in my environment, in my classes, I’m not going to speak too much on it because you know I stand with you.
‘You will not hear that artist in my class,’ Toussaint said. ‘I promise y’all I do not support hate speech, whatsoever, baby. I don’t tolerate that at all all.’
It’s been loss after loss for Ye, who also lost his partnership with GAP, who immediately pulled his merchandise from their dedicated website after announcing that they were no longer working with him.
The company condemned West’s comments Tuesday, saying that were taking ‘immediate steps’ to remove Yeezy GAP products from their stores and shut down their website.
‘On behalf of our customers, employees and shareholders, we are partnering with organizations that combat hate and discrimination.’
Universal Music’s Def Jam has also condemned West’s comments, after splitting with the rapper last year.
They said: ‘Def Jam’s relationship with Ye as a recording artists, its partnership with the GOOD Music label venture and Ye’s merchandise agreement with Bravado all ended in 2021.
‘There is no place for antisemitism in our society. We are deeply committed to combating antisemitism and every other form of prejudice.’
The rapper was also dropped Monday by talent agency CAA.
In a statement GAP said: ‘Anti-Semitism, racism and hate in any form are inexcusable and not tolerated in accordance with our values.
His Twitter and Instagram accounts were restricted, with the social media platforms saying they removed his posts that online users condemned as antisemitic.
Ye’s dissolution with Adidas could come at an estimate $247 million for the company, they said Tuesday.
Their partnership began in 2013, after he let a collaboration with Nike, and was expected to be a ten-year-long production.
Before being dumped by the brand Kanye had already begun publicly sparring with Adidas executives, accusing them of ‘stealing’ his ideas.
West owns the Yeezy brand but Adidas pay him an annual royalty fee to sell the products.
Adidas, whose founder Adi Dassler belonged to the Nazi Party, found themselves coming under increasing pressure to drop Kanye after several antisemitic comments.
Experts have also claimed that the resale market for Yeezy’s will explode because they will not be produced in mass quantities anymore.
Tamar Andrews, an educational consultant for Kanye, officially resigned earlier this month following the antisemitic outbursts.
In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, the president of Temple Isaiah of LA, where Andrews is a director, said: ‘Dr. Andrews immediately resigned from Donda Academy following Ye West’s tweet.
West has faced criticism in recent weeks for his bizarre behavior, including introducing a series of shirts branded with ‘White Lives Matter’ at Paris Fashion week.
During an episode of Drink Champs podcast with N.O.R.E, West claimed that George Floyd died from taking fentanyl and that Derek Chauvin’s knee ‘wasn’t even on his neck like that.’
Floyd’s family have since lodged a $250million lawsuit against the star over the comments, calling them ‘repugnant’ and saying he used ‘false statements’ to ‘promote his brands’.
Kanye also made the incorrect claim that he is the ‘richest black man in American history’ – a title that belongs to Vista Equity’s Robert F. Smith.
He said: ‘A lot of this stuff for me as the richest black man in American history, that put $140million in JP Morgan, and never even had a chance to… not even get to deal with them. We’ll speak at a different time.’
In 2021, West was inaccurately described as the richest man in America after Bloomberg reported the valuations of his companies at $6.6billion.
GAP and Kanye ended their partnership in September. European fashion house Balenciaga has also cut ties with him
The father-of-four’s wealth could plummet to below $1billion after the termination with the brand, which comes after several other lucrative deals have been dropped
Kanye West has been dropped attorney Camille Vasquez, who famously defended Johnny Depp in his defamation trial. She is pictured on June 1, 2022
Much of that figure came from sales that hadn’t yet been realized and were never an indication of his personal wealth – with Forbes estimating his net worth at around $1.8billion.
JP Morgan Chase has declined to comment on why it cut ties with the rapper.
Candace Owens has defended Kanye, saying: ‘Corporations can dissociate from Ye but they will not steal from him.’
The decision from Adidas to terminate its partnership with Kanye represents the latest blow to the rapper who has seen numerous working relationships tarnished in light of recent controversies.
Ye was also dropped by Camille Vasquez, the lawyer who defended Johnny Depp, as well as top talent agency CAA for recent remarks in which he tweeted he was planning to go to war with Jewish people.
A source for The New York Post claimed: ‘After Ye doubled down [on anti-Semitic comments] this weekend, Camille dropped him. The firm still wanted to make it work but on the condition he retract, he wouldn’t – so he fired them.’
The law firm has previously declined to confirm to DailyMail.com whether or not it had secured West as a client.
It was also revealed on Monday that top talent agency CAA had cut ties with Kanye, according to the LA Times.
The company announced it had stopped representing him at some point over the last month, after he made the antisemitic remarks.
West has been represented by the company since 2016 after he left for one year for the agency UTA.
Meanwhile, production studio MRC announced on Monday they are shelving a documentary they made about the 45-year-old rapper.
MRC studio executives Modi Wiczyk, Asif Satchu and Scott Tenley announced in a memo Monday: ‘We cannot support any content that amplifies his platform.’
Wiczyk and Satchu are co-founders and co-CEOs of MRC Entertainment. Tenley is the chief business officer. Shelving the documentary comes just days after the French fashion house Balenciaga cut ties with Ye, according to Women’s Wear Daily.
A number of Jewish executives have also called Kanye out for his hateful remarks, with DailyMail.com reporting that Hollywood super agent Ari Emanuel penned an op-ed calling for all major brands to drop the rapper.
Emanuel wrote: ‘Those who continue to do business with West are giving his misguided hate an audience.’
Ye’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian also broke her silence, claiming she ‘stands together with the Jewish community’ in a public declaration of support in opposition to her former husband’s social media posts.
Kanye said in a recent bizarre interview that he believes he and Kardashian are only divorced ‘on paper.’
He also said he will ‘love her for life’ despite spending much of the last year harassing Kardashian and her ex-boyfriend, ‘SNL’ alum Pete Davidson.
Kanye earlier this year hit out at several brands with which he is affiliated, accusing them of not fulfilling certain contractual arrangements.
In now-deleted Instagram posts, the multiple Grammy award winning artist accused Adidas and U.S. apparel retailer Gap Inc of failing to build contractually promised permanent stores for products from his Yeezy fashion line.
He also accused Adidas of stealing his designs for its own products.
Gap and Kanye ended their partnership in September. European fashion house Balenciaga has also cut ties with Ye.
Adidas poached Kanye from rival Nike Inc in 2013 and agreed to a new long-term partnership in 2016 in what the company then called ‘the most significant partnership created between a non-athlete and a sports brand.’
The tie-up has produced several hot-selling ‘Yeezy’ branded Adidas sneakers that could cost anywhere between $200 and $700. The partnership also helped the German brand close the gap with Nike in the U.S. market.
Yeezy generates about 1.5 billion euros ($1.47 billion) in annual sales for Adidas, making up a little over 7 per cent of the company’s total revenue, according to estimates from Telsey Advisory Group.
Shares of the company, which cut its full-year forecast last week, were down about three per cent on the report amid the controversy over Ye.
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