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🧞🪔 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙂𝙚𝙣𝙞𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙇𝙖𝙢𝙥 🧞🪔
Inside their partnership, the artist made antisemitic and sexually offensive comments, displayed erratic behavior, and issued ever escalating demands, a New York Times examination found. Adidas’s leaders, eager for the profits, time and again abided his misconduct.
When he exploded in bitter outbursts at Adidas managers, the company typically sought not to rein him in but to appease him. In negotiations over the years, Adidas kept sweetening the deal, doubling down on its investment and tethering its fortunes more closely to him.
Even as Mr. West voiced increasingly toxic beliefs, privately and publicly, Adidas stepped up production and released Yeezys more frequently. And executives disregarded employee concerns that his troubling conduct risked tainting the brand’s reputation.
As companies increasingly turn to deals with celebrities, the Yeezy collaboration shows the precarious balance of risk and reward. Adidas entered the partnership in hopes of catching up to Nike, which had long dominated the hypercompetitive global sneaker market. But working with Mr. West, one of the most influential artists in the world — a “master of spectacle,” as one former executive put it — meant being tied to a provocative, polarizing and sometimes unstable personality.
While some other brands have been quick to end deals over offensive or embarrassing behavior, Adidas held on for years.
Mr. West made Adidas executives watch pornography during a meeting at his Manhattan apartment, ostensibly to spark creativity. In February 2015, preparing to show the first Yeezy collection at New York Fashion Week, staff members complained that he had upset them with angry, sexually crude comments.
He later advised a Jewish Adidas manager to kiss a picture of Hitler every day, and he told a member of the company’s executive board that he had paid a seven-figure settlement to one of his own senior employees who accused him of repeatedly praising the architect of the Holocaust.
Again and again, Mr. West contended that Adidas was exploiting him. “I feel super disrespected in this ‘partnership,’” he said in one text message. “I’ve never felt understood,” he wrote in another. He routinely sought more money and power, even suggesting that he should become Adidas’s chief executive.
His complaints were often delivered amid mood swings, creating whiplash for the Adidas team working with him. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder, he at times rejected the assessment and resisted treatment. Tears were common; so was fury.
Meeting with Adidas’s leaders in November 2019 to discuss his demands, he hurled shoes around the room. The month before, an internal text message described him becoming “fully, fully ramped up” and charging, “‘This is slavery’” — an accusation he leveled multiple times during the partnership.
As Adidas grew more reliant on Yeezy sales, so did Mr. West. In addition to royalties and upfront cash, the company eventually agreed to another enticement: $100 million annually, officially for Yeezy marketing but, in practice, a fund that he could spend with little oversight.
After the relationship ruptured and Yeezy sales came to a halt, both Adidas and the musician were hit hard. The company projected its first annual loss in decades. Mr. West’s net worth plummeted.
But they had at least one more chance to keep making money together.
Even as they squared off in arbitration, Adidas and Mr. West came to an agreement that served their common interest. Starting in May, Adidas began releasing the remaining inventory of Yeezys. A portion of the proceeds would go to the Anti-Defamation League, another group battling antisemitism and an organization started by George Floyd’s family.
But most of the revenue would go to Adidas, and Mr. West was entitled to royalties.
The shoes took in about $437 million in sales through June, according to the most recent figures available. Crediting the recent Yeezy drops, along with its other products, Adidas has significantly improved its forecast for the year, revising an earlier projected operating loss of more than $700 million to about $100 million.
The success of the Yeezy releases showed that some customers may no longer closely associate the star with the brand they love, and many do not care about his behavior, said Matt Powell, a sports retailer consultant. “You still have a real loyal Yeezy fan club out there.”
In a podcast interview last month, Adidas’s chief executive, Bjorn Gulden, praised Mr. West’s creativity and lamented how the partnership — “one of the most successful collabs in history” — ended.
“Very unfortunate,” Mr. Gulden said, “because I don’t think he meant what he said.”
Days later, Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, posted online that Mr. Gulden had apologized for those remarks. “Our decision to end our partnership with Ye because of his unacceptable comments and behavior was the right one,” Adidas said in a statement. “Our stance has not changed.”
Full Article:
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When he exploded in bitter outbursts at Adidas managers, the company typically sought not to rein him in but to appease him. In negotiations over the years, Adidas kept sweetening the deal, doubling down on its investment and tethering its fortunes more closely to him.
Even as Mr. West voiced increasingly toxic beliefs, privately and publicly, Adidas stepped up production and released Yeezys more frequently. And executives disregarded employee concerns that his troubling conduct risked tainting the brand’s reputation.
As companies increasingly turn to deals with celebrities, the Yeezy collaboration shows the precarious balance of risk and reward. Adidas entered the partnership in hopes of catching up to Nike, which had long dominated the hypercompetitive global sneaker market. But working with Mr. West, one of the most influential artists in the world — a “master of spectacle,” as one former executive put it — meant being tied to a provocative, polarizing and sometimes unstable personality.
While some other brands have been quick to end deals over offensive or embarrassing behavior, Adidas held on for years.
Mr. West made Adidas executives watch pornography during a meeting at his Manhattan apartment, ostensibly to spark creativity. In February 2015, preparing to show the first Yeezy collection at New York Fashion Week, staff members complained that he had upset them with angry, sexually crude comments.
He later advised a Jewish Adidas manager to kiss a picture of Hitler every day, and he told a member of the company’s executive board that he had paid a seven-figure settlement to one of his own senior employees who accused him of repeatedly praising the architect of the Holocaust.
Again and again, Mr. West contended that Adidas was exploiting him. “I feel super disrespected in this ‘partnership,’” he said in one text message. “I’ve never felt understood,” he wrote in another. He routinely sought more money and power, even suggesting that he should become Adidas’s chief executive.
His complaints were often delivered amid mood swings, creating whiplash for the Adidas team working with him. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder, he at times rejected the assessment and resisted treatment. Tears were common; so was fury.
Meeting with Adidas’s leaders in November 2019 to discuss his demands, he hurled shoes around the room. The month before, an internal text message described him becoming “fully, fully ramped up” and charging, “‘This is slavery’” — an accusation he leveled multiple times during the partnership.
As Adidas grew more reliant on Yeezy sales, so did Mr. West. In addition to royalties and upfront cash, the company eventually agreed to another enticement: $100 million annually, officially for Yeezy marketing but, in practice, a fund that he could spend with little oversight.
After the relationship ruptured and Yeezy sales came to a halt, both Adidas and the musician were hit hard. The company projected its first annual loss in decades. Mr. West’s net worth plummeted.
But they had at least one more chance to keep making money together.
Even as they squared off in arbitration, Adidas and Mr. West came to an agreement that served their common interest. Starting in May, Adidas began releasing the remaining inventory of Yeezys. A portion of the proceeds would go to the Anti-Defamation League, another group battling antisemitism and an organization started by George Floyd’s family.
But most of the revenue would go to Adidas, and Mr. West was entitled to royalties.
The shoes took in about $437 million in sales through June, according to the most recent figures available. Crediting the recent Yeezy drops, along with its other products, Adidas has significantly improved its forecast for the year, revising an earlier projected operating loss of more than $700 million to about $100 million.
The success of the Yeezy releases showed that some customers may no longer closely associate the star with the brand they love, and many do not care about his behavior, said Matt Powell, a sports retailer consultant. “You still have a real loyal Yeezy fan club out there.”
In a podcast interview last month, Adidas’s chief executive, Bjorn Gulden, praised Mr. West’s creativity and lamented how the partnership — “one of the most successful collabs in history” — ended.
“Very unfortunate,” Mr. Gulden said, “because I don’t think he meant what he said.”
Days later, Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, posted online that Mr. Gulden had apologized for those remarks. “Our decision to end our partnership with Ye because of his unacceptable comments and behavior was the right one,” Adidas said in a statement. “Our stance has not changed.”
Full Article:
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