Adidas breaks with Ye after antisemitic remarks

Adidas on Tuesday formally ended its partnership with Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, who has drawn heavy criticism in recent weeks for making antisemitic comments.

Adidas officials said in a statement the company will immediately halt the production of Yeezy products and stop paying the rapper and his companies.

“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,” the company said.

Under the partnership, Adidas owns the design rights and color schemes to the products.

The news comes a couple weeks after the sneaker and sports apparel company announced the partnership was under review following backlash against the musician and fashion designer’s antisemitic comments on social media and in various interviews.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) had pressured Adidas to formally drop the rapper during the review period.

In an interview with MSNBC on Monday, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said Adidas needed to “make a clear statement” against Ye’s conduct.

“Whether it’s claiming that Jews are responsible for COVID, claiming that Jews have too much power, claiming that Jews are this or that, these age-old myths … used to intimidate and terrorize people are inexcusable,” Greenblatt said. “Most Americans … are repulsed by this kind of racism and hate. They want nothing to do with it.”

Adidas joins Creative Talent Agencies and the Balenciaga fashion house in cutting ties with Ye.

Ye in the past month tweeted that he was going “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE” and accused rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs of being controlled by Jewish people.

He’s also made appearances on talk shows where he’s cited conspiracy theories about Jewish people, including that they control Black thought, and other conspiracies in unaired portions of a Fox News interview.

Ye apologized for his antisemitic comments in an interview with Piers Morgan last week, but only after citing more conspiracies about Jewish people.