- Adidas sells out of Yeezy stock, closing the book on one of its most successful partnerships.
- The partnership ended in 2022 after Ye’s antisemitic comments.
- Adidas saw a 12% sales increase in 2024, despite a 2% drop in North America.
The lengthy saga of Adidas and Yeezy is coming to a close.
The sports giant reported its 2024 earnings on Wednesday, where Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden told investors that there are no more Yeezy products in its inventory. Adidas announced plans to sell the remaining 268 million euros, or $289 million, of Yeezy inventory in February 2024.
The company reached its goal in the fourth quarter of 2024, generating around 650 million euros in revenue from Yeezy sales, it reported. The Yeezy brand began in 2015 as a collaboration with Kanye West, known as Ye, but the partnership turned sour and ended in 2022 after a series of antisemitic rants by Ye.
Although Adidas saw a 12% increase in currency-adjusted sales for 2024, its North America region was hit with a 2% decrease in revenue “entirely due to significantly lower sales of Yeezy products,” the company reported.
Last year, Ye blasted the German brand in a string of Instagram posts accusing it of selling “fake” Yeezys and not paying him for its sales.
Adidas condemned Ye’s “unacceptable, hateful, and dangerous” comments in 2022. A legal battle ensued, and Adidas said in October that it reached an out-of-court settlement with the rapper.
In the aftermath of severing a lucrative relationship, Adidas expected a short-term negative impact on its sales. Gulden took over as CEO in 2023, and Adidas regained its momentum, reporting a 10% increase in currency-neutral revenues across the group in Q3 2024.
“Although we are not yet where we want to be long-term, it was a very successful year that confirmed the strength of the adidas brand,” Gulden said in a Wednesday press release.
Meanwhile, Ye remains at the center of controversy. Earlier this year, described himself as a Nazi in a series of posts to X. In February, he appeared in an ad during Super Bowl LIX directing viewers to a website selling only a shirt with a Swastika.
