What is Kanye West's net worth NOW? Adidas, GAP, Balenciaga among companies that cut ties with rapper
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Kanye West's antisemitic remarks have finally caused damage to his empire. According to Forbes' latest update, Kanye is no longer a billionaire after he challenged Adidas to "drop him" for his antisemitic remarks. Ye's collaboration with Adidas Yeezy made 4% to 8% of Adidas' sales but it accounted for $1.5B of Kanye's net worth which has now drastically come down to $400M following the end of the collaboration. It happened after Kanye said on 'Drink Champs' podcast, "I can say antisemitic s**t and Adidas cannot drop me," which led to not just the sportswear giant, but a couple of other companies to cut ties with the rapper.
Even though the founder of Adidas reportedly had ties with the Nazis, the company is yet to comment on the matter, Meanwhile, on October 6 they said that their partnership with Ye was 'under review'. Things got worse after a picture reportedly went viral on social media where a group of White supremacists were seen on a bridge with a banner that read, "Kanye was right about the Jews," as they did a Nazi salute to the drivers passing by.
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Following the uproar caused by West's statements, Adidas released a statement on October 25 stating how they did not tolerate antisemitism and that they were terminating their partnership with Ye with immediate effect. The statement released by the company read, "adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech. Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness."
The statement further read,"After a thorough review, the company has taken the decision to terminate the partnership with Ye immediately, end production of Yeezy branded products and stop all payments to Ye and his companies. adidas will stop the adidas Yeezy business with immediate effect."
The company also talked about the possible impact on the company's business and mentioned the reserved rights as they said, "This is expected to have a short-term negative impact of up to €250 million (~$250.64M) on the company’s net income in 2022 given the high seasonality of the fourth quarter. adidas is the sole owner of all design rights to existing products as well as previous and new colorways under the partnership. More information will be given as part of the company’s upcoming Q3 earnings announcement on November 9, 2022."
Other companies that cut ties with West following his antisemitic outburst were Balenciaga, CAA, GAP, and MRC. Kering, the French multinational corporation specializing in luxury goods that owns Balenciaga, said, "Balenciaga has no longer any relationship nor any plans for future projects related to this artist," according to Women's Wear Daily, without elaborating on the reason. According to Billboard, MRC shelved an almost completed documentary on West while GAP also decided to remove Yeezy products from sale and stop their production while also closing the Yeezy Gap online store.
The Creative Artists Agency also confirmed that they no longer had Ye as their client, who was associated with the company since 2012. In addition to all this, West's Twitter and Instagram accounts were also restricted for violating the community guidelines even though Ye was welcomed to Twitter by Elon Musk.