The once-promising partnership between Adidas and Ye, the rapper previously known as Kanye West, has reached its endgame as the German sportswear giant sold its remaining Yeezy sneaker inventory during its fourth quarter.
Adidas reported year-end financial results with revenue of €23.7 billion ($25.4 billion, based on current exchange rates), including roughly €50 million ($54 million) from the last stock of Yeezy footwear. For the year, Adidas generated revenue of around €650 million ($696 million) from Yeezy, down from €750 million ($803 million) in 2023.
Adidas’ overall North America sales fell 2% for the quarter, which was “solely due to significantly lower Yeezy sales,” according to the company’s earnings release.
The sale of the remaining Yeezy inventory contributed around €200 million ($214 million) in operating profit to the company’s overall 2024 profit of €1.34 billion ($1.43 billion). In 2023, Yeezy profits were around €300 million ($321 million). Adidas CEO Bjorn Gulden told reporters the company earmarked €260 million ($278 million) for charitable causes from Yeezy sales.
“There is not one Yeezy shoe left, it has all been sold, and that episode is behind us,” Harm Ohlmeyer, Adidas chief financial officer, said at a press conference after the earnings news.
In October 2022, Adidas cut ties with Ye over his anti-Semitic remarks. The rapper told Chris Cuomo of NewsNation that “every celebrity has Jewish people in their contract” and that there was a “Jewish underground media mafia.” In another interview with Tucker Carlson, Ye suggested that the Ku Klux Klan and American birth control activist Margaret Sanger had created Planned Parenthood to control the Jewish population.
After two years of litigation and arbitration, Adidas and Ye reached an out-of-court resolution of their contractual dispute stemming from Adidas terminating the relationship.
Despite the Yeezy controversy, Adidas’ stock price is up 64% over the past two years, as investors have bought into the turnaround plan led by Gulden, who took over as CEO in January 2023. In contrast, Nike shares are down 34% during the same period.
