The Adidas-Yeezy collaboration is officially over, and the road was rocky for the sportswear company. With the final shipment of remaining Yeezy stock, Adidas put its once-lucrative partnership with Kanye West, now known legally as Ye, in the rearview mirror, closing the page on a saga that rocked the industry and obliterated a vast swath of the company’s bottom line.
It all began with a sneaker fairy tale. It was Valentine’s Day in 2015 when sneakerheads worldwide fell in love with the Yeezy Boost 750, a groundbreaking release that propelled Adidas into the spotlight as no collaboration had ever done before. The partnership with Ye wasn’t a celebrity endorsement but a cultural juggernaut. Yeezy sneakers sold out in stores, turning Adidas into a money machine while redefining its street cred.
By 2022, the relationship had deteriorated beyond repair.” Ye’s several antisemitic outbursts set off public outcry and put Adidas in a tough spot. The German sportswear giant wasted no time severing ties, scrapping one of its most lucrative revenue streams, and leaving behind a vast unused stockpile of Yeezy inventory worth an estimated $1.3 billion. The fallout was immediate, and Adidas weighed in with its first annual loss in over three decades. This painful financial belly punch made it easier to see how steeply the brand had become intertwined with the Yeezy empire.
With warehouses filled with unsold stock, Adidas had a dilemma: destroy the remaining Yeezy sneakers or sell them off in a manner that could help alleviate the backlash. In May 2023, the chief executive, Bjorn Gulden, unveiled a plan to sell the shoes but funnel some of the proceeds to charities fighting antisemitism, including the Anti-Defamation League and the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, which was established by the New England Patriots owner, Robert Kraft. It was an attempt to balance losses with an act of contrition, confronted openly.
Jump ahead to March 5, 2025, and Adidas has finally cleared out that last pair of Yeezys. The financial harm is still fresh, but North American revenue fell two percent in 2024, thanks to flagging Yeezy sales. Even after closing the last sale, Adidas is still feeling the aftershock from the split, and it’s striking it where it hurts: the balance sheet.
The Adidas-Yeezy affiliation introduced both boons and banes. It transformed sneaker culture, creating billions across what became a new landscape in postmodern streetwear. But it also revealed the pitfalls of linking a brand’s success closely to one divisive figure. The Yeezy empire may be through at Adidas. Still, the lessons from this high-stakes collaboration and its spectacular unraveling will unlikely be lost on the industry soon.
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