The Adidas-Yeezy partnership unraveled in October 2022 after Kanye West publicly insisted that his celebrity and the commercial power of Yeezy made him untouchable. Days after wearing a “White Lives Matter” shirt at a Paris Fashion Week presentation, West escalated a stream of antisemitic statements across Instagram, Twitter, interviews, and podcasts. On the Drink Champs podcast, he declared that he could make antisemitic remarks and Adidas could not drop him. Adidas placed the relationship under review on October 7, while Balenciaga, Vogue, Creative Artists Agency, and MRC severed their own ties. The situation became even more toxic when the antisemitic Goyim Defense League endorsed West.
On October 25, Adidas terminated the collaboration immediately, calling West’s conduct “unacceptable, hateful and dangerous” and incompatible with its commitments to diversity, mutual respect, and fairness. Production of Yeezy-branded goods and royalty payments stopped, threatening a business that generated roughly $2 billion in annual sales for Adidas—about 10 percent of the company’s revenue—and had paid West approximately $191 million in royalties in 2020. Adidas warned of up to $1.3 billion in lost 2023 revenue, while Forbes estimated that West’s net worth fell from approximately $2 billion to $400 million. The aftermath was an awkward commercial compromise: in February 2023, Adidas and West agreed to sell existing inventory without creating new designs, with a portion of later proceeds directed to charities. The episode became a defining example of how a luxury-scale celebrity collaboration can turn into a governance, reputational, and financial crisis almost overnight.
