H1 results put cost of Kanye cancellation at €400m for adidas
Sports group adidas has reported revenues of €10.6 billion for the first six months of 2023, a fall of 3% year on year.
It said the discontinuation of its Yeezy business represented “a drag of around €400 million” on its results for the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2022.
In 2016, adidas formally announced that it was cementing an existing relationship with rap artist Kanye West (also known as Ye), turning it into “a transformative new partnership” to develop footwear, apparel and accessories under the brand name Yeezy. It said this would be “the most significant partnership ever between an athletic brand and a non-athlete”.
However, in October 2022, adidas announced that it was terminating the relationship immediately. It said antisemitic comments Ye had made in the public domain had been “unacceptable, hateful and dangerous”. It said these comments violated the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.
Chief executive, Bjørn Gulden, said adidas was happier with the way the second quarter of the year had developed. He said the company’s core business was “slightly better than we expected”, although it still had “too much slow-moving inventory in the market”.
