The Saga Continues: Ye’s Partnership With adidas is Officially Under Review

Keeping up with Kanye West hasn’t been easy over the past couple of months. The multi-hyphenate seems to change his mind like the seasons, and there’s been a whole lot of back and forth as to whether he’d be looking to leave, or stay on for his contracted time at adidas after he originally accused them of stealing Yeezy's designs.

Though he very publicly called out adidas’ board members in the Instagram rant, it wasn’t quite enough to push the partnership to breaking point. This came shortly after Ye’s Yeezy Season 9 show at Paris Fashion Week, where the rapper donned a “White Lives Matter” t-shirt much to the disappointment and disgust of the rest of the fashion world. Officially branded hate speech by the Anti-Defamation League, the slogan tee saw celebs and editors leave the show early, and (rightfully) resulted in a social media frenzy that saw fashion insiders publicly condemn the rapper. Ye’s erratic approach to Instagram rants saw him attack one journalist in particular, Vogue Editor Gabrielle Karefa-Johnson, who criticised the tee, but instead of attempting to have a discussion about her thoughts and feelings, he opted to attack her appearance instead.

Later that day, Ye also launched an attack on the Arnault family, the owners of LVMH and one of the most powerful families in fashion. After calling Bernard Arnault his “new Drake” he accused the company of killing Virgil Abloh and turning Ye’s friends against him. That claim itself seemed to be the very thing that did, as designers like Tremaine Emory responded to Ye on social asking him to stop.

The recent outburst, bullying and hate speech have all led adidas to call the partnership into question. Though undeniably one of the Three Stripe's most successful ventures, some things are just inexcusable. On the 6th of October, the brand released a statement that said:

adidas has always been about creativity, innovation and supporting athletes and artists to achieve their vision. The adidas Yeezy partnership is one of the most successful collaborations in our industry’s history. We are proud of our team that has worked tirelessly throughout our collaboration with Ye and the iconic products that were born from it. We also recognize that all successful partnerships are rooted in mutual respect and shared values. After repeated efforts to privately resolve the situation, we have taken the decision to place the partnership under review. We will continue to co-manage the current product during this period.

Ye and adidas' existing partnership dates back to 2013, and shaped the sneaker world as we know it. Just last month, Ye terminated his partnership with GAP, and according to Bloomberg, the total value of both partnerships was expected to be $3.2 and $4.7 billion dollars. Though adidas will continue to release Yeezys as scheduled, for now, this is definitely the closest we’ve come to seeing the pair officially split.

As for Ye, he responded exactly as expected - with a now-deleted post that read: “F*CK ADIDAS I AM ADIDAS.”

Make sure to stay locked to The Sole Supplier to see how this one develops, and if you’re in need of a palette cleanser then check out this super-limited Trefoil release.