Meanwhile, Adidas is sitting on a pile of unsold Kanye West’s Yeezys
Kanye West’s exit leads Adidas to lose ‘Midas touch’?
Adidas is facing stark losses after its Midas touch Kanye West was cut loose by the company after anti-Semitic controversy.
Now, CEO Bjørn Gulden has admitted that business is “hurting” from Ye’s departure.
The chief of the German company said, “The loss of Yeezy is “of course, hurting us,” especially sales in the North America market, where sales dipped a whopping 20%.
Meanwhile, in 2023’s first quarter, the multi-billion company has expected to hit by €400m sales loss after the Yeezy fallout.
Moreover, a BBC News report revealed total revenue vanished by 1 percent.
In 2022, the sportswear giant cut ties with the 45-year-old after he delivered numerous anti-Semitic rants.
After cutting ties with the Stronger rapper, the company issued the statement at that time, “Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech.”
Further, Adidas revealed the mountains of unsold Yeezy would further hit the company worth €500million profits in 2023 if not “repurposed.”
Previously, Adidas mulled the extreme option, in case of stark losses, of putting West’s $500 million unsold Yeezy pile to fire.
Several analysts estimated product mass at approximately $300 million to $500 million. In return, the company is expected to shed up to $1.3 billion in profit losses in the current year, as per Financial Times.
“What makes this so dramatic is how big it is,” Wedbush analyst Tom Nikic told the Washington Post, adding that the Yeezy brand was raking in almost $2 billion in revenue in a year.
“That’s really a big, substantial part of (Adidas’s) business — and the abruptness with which it happened.”
