Kanye West Mum As Adidas Reveals Plans To Sell Yeezy Without Him

Adidas and Kanye West have a nine-year-old relationship, although the shoe brand finally called it quits on October 25, given West's antisemitic remarks, and his insistence on not apologizing for them. West's fortune has taken a hit but it's not as if Adidas has escaped unscathed, given that Yeezy was its best-selling line.

So Adidas has taken a call, to sell Yeezy without the Ye sometime next year, although fans aren't quite on board with the same, although West is keeping his silence on social media.

Kanye West's billionaire status dropped immediately after Adidas broke ties with the singer and record owner, but Adidas is facing a loss in revenue as well. At the time of announcing the split, the shoe brand admitted it's likely to take a $247 million hit this year. On Wednesday, the company released its third-quarter earnings which showed "robust growth" but with a few challenges, with an annual revenue likely to be $502 million lower than predicted in the beginning.

Most of the loss in revenue comes from the fact that Adidas, after cutting ties with Kanye, has stopped all sales of Yeezy shoes with immediate effect. That said, Adidas will also end up saving around $300 million in 2023, because it no longer has to pay royalties and marketing costs for Yeezy to Kanye West and his companies.

This is quite in line with what Nike did to Kanye West when he dumped it for Adidas in November 2013. At the time, West called out Nike and its then-CEO Mark Parker for not paying him royalties on sold shoes after the split, which Nike said was fair because Ye was not an athlete.

The sailing has often been turbulent between Kanye West and Adidas, some of the fights being on a public platform as well. When Adidas released the Adidas Adilette that looked like Yeezy Slides, he called them "a fake YEEZY made by Adidas themselves." He also posted about it on Instagram, writing, "I'm not standing for this blatant copying no more."

While the contract between Adidas and West is not public, common knowledge alleges that Ye's company, Mascotte Holdings Inc has a portfolio of more than 160 trademark applications and registrations for Yeezy, that said, Adidas owners the rights to most of the designs, including the bestseller Yeezy Boost 350.

Since 2019, in August, Adidas celebrates Yeezy Day to push for sales, and yet earlier this year, Kanye West made it clear that the "celebration" isn't approved by him. He DM'd the media outlet Complex, writing, "Adidas made up the Yeezy Day idea without my approval."

Later, in another deleted post, as reported by Okayplayer, West wrote, "The fact [adidas] felt they could color my shoes and name them without my approval is really wild. I really care about building something that changes the world and something I can leave to my kids. They tried to buy me out for 1 billion dollars [USD]. My royalties next year are 500 million dollars [USD] alone."

Things have changed a lot from back then, of course.

Earlier this week, Adidas Chief Financial Officer Harm Ohlmeyer stressed that it's the company that owns the designs it made in partnership with Ye, saying, "Adidas is the sole owner of all design rights registered to the existing product. We intend to make use of these rights as early as 2023."

While he did not elaborate on Adidas' upcoming plans, Ohlmeyer only repeated that the company owns "all the versions and new colorways. It's our IP." He also said that they were "working through all the options. When the time is right we will be more specific."

The fans of Yeezy, and Ye, are not quite on board with this.

Kanye is yet to respond, in any way.