Kanye West gets a small window of relief after Adidas says it will continue selling Yeezy and George Floyd’s brother deciding to pause lawsuit.
If you’ve been keeping up with Kanye West news, you would know that it’s not been going so well for him lately. Probably the biggest blow that he’s suffered so far since his antisemitic rants happened yesterday when sportswear giant Adidas announced that they had cut ties with Kanye.
According to Forbes, losing that partnership dropped him out of the billionaire’s club and took his net worth to about $400 million. What was interesting about Adidas’ statement yesterday was that they revealed that they owned all the rights to the Chicago rapper’s designs.
The company also stated that they were well aware of the loss they would suffer but stood firm against any form of hate speech.
“This is expected to have a short-term negative impact of up to $250 million 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,” the company stated.
The relationship between Ye and the clothing giant had been rocky for some time now, and it is believed that Kanye wanted to go his own way. However, it is highly doubted that he wanted the relationship to end this way.
It seems, at least according to Bloomberg, that the only design that Adidas doesn’t own is the Adidas Yeezy Foam Runner, which means that the rapper will not be able to independent sell any of his other previous designs.
Even so, Adidas is still in a pickle because Ye’s loyal fanbase won’t line up at stores if he is not personally behind the brand anymore. Information being circulated indicates that the company may be planning on relaunching previous Yeezy designs, but somehow they intend to do it without the Yeezy branding.
It’s a move that many experts believe could attract a legal battle from Ye, and we won’t know how this one turns out until the actual launch of the product in the near future.
In other news, the “Everything I Am” rapper may have just recorded his first W in a long time. According to TMZ, George Floyd’s brother Philonise Floyd, and his attorney Lee Merritt, have temporarily paused the lawsuit against Ye, Candace Owens, and other parties.
The lawsuit stemmed from comments the veteran rapper made on Drink Champs, which Floyd’s brother believed peddled a false narrative that his brother died from a fentanyl overdose, not police brutality.
The decision looks to have been made since the “Flashing Lights” rapper became silent on the matter since the interview and the fact that REVOLT complied with the cease-and-desist letter issued on behalf of Floyd’s daughter, Gianna.
REVOLT eventually pulled the episode from both its platform and its YouTube channel. The host of the show, N.O.R.E., also apologized for pursuing the episode and not stopping Kanye before it got out of control.
Additionally, Lee admitted that Candace Owens would be a difficult target as she would have protection as a journalist exploring a topic and would be considered free to pursue her opinion.
Even so, Ye is still facing a potential lawsuit from Gianna’s lawyers, who are reportedly seeking more than $250M in damages.
