Adidas Plans To Retail YEEZY Sneakers Without Kanye West’s Branding

Adidas’ relationship with Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, had been on the rocks for a while. A string of controversial hate comments would be the downfall of his exceedingly successful design career—and it just kept plummeting. Earlier this month, under pressure, the sportswear giant said it would put their lucrative Adidas x YEEZY partnership under review. The breakdown eventually happened when West made anti-Semitic threats on Instagram and Twitter, two ranting outlets he is now banned from.

In September, West also accused Adidas of trying to buy out their joint YEEZY designs for US$1 billion. “The fact [Adidas] felt they could color my shoes and name them without my approval is really wild… They tried to buy me out for one billion dollars. My royalties next year are 500 million dollars alone,” the rapper wrote in a now-deleted Instagram post.

Things seem to have worked out for Adidas in the end—but are there any true winners in this affair?

On October 25, the German brand announced it has officially terminated its contract with Ye and will stop all his payments, joining Balenciaga and the Gap in severing their high-banking ties with the mogul. A new Bloomberg report now suggests that Adidas intends to continue selling the popular sneakers without the YEEZY branding.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley and RBC Capital Markets tell Bloomberg that Adidas’ leadership has said it will cease retail for YEEZY-branded products but will sell the designs under the Adidas name early next year.

Piral Dadhania, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, cites that Adidas is choosing this strategy to minimize its loss of revenues while also saving on royalty and marketing fees it will no longer have to pay.

Notably, buried at the bottom of the company’s statement reads: “Adidas is the sole owner of all design rights to existing products as well as previous and new colorways under the partnership.” Adidas added that it will share more details at its Q3 earnings call on November 9.

Call it foreshadowing, but these were things Ye had openly feared in the months before. It just didn’t occur to him that he’d be the one stoking the fire.

New York City fashion lawyer Shahrina Ankhi-Krol tells CNN that although West owns the YEEZY trademarks, Adidas has the rights for the designs, giving it the authority to use existing footwear and build upon it for future releases.

The only design Adidas has no access to are the YEEZY Slides. Even so, it came prepared.

In June, West condemned the brand for supposedly “copying” his Adilette 22 Slides with a version sporting a contoured topographic appearance.

West, with his signature unfiltered demeanor, blabbered that the sportswear behemoth “r*ped and stole my designs.”

[via Bloomberg, CNN, Adidas Group, cover photo 133054203 © Albo | Dreamstime.com]