Kanye West has talked himself out of more than $1.5 billion, according to Forbes, after weeks of bigoted comments caused adidas to terminate their partnership.
Ye, as he is now legally known, began the year with an estimated net worth of $2 billion, and after the release of Donda 2 and a summer of high-profile fashion rollouts, that number had likely grown. But a lot of that value came from branded partnerships that he has since shed.
In September, he and Gap agreed to end the Yeezy Gap line, and that came before antisemitic posts led to restrictions on West’s social media accounts. Afterwards, as more reports began to surface that Ye had praised Hitler, JP Morgan Chase unbanked him. In October, he also wore White Lives Matter apparel and spread the conservative misinformation that George Floyd, who was murdered by a police officer, had actually died of a fentanyl overdose. Floyd’s family is now suing for $250 million.
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adidas is just the latest domino to fall, and it had been a long time coming. He had accused the company of ripping off his designs and selling non-partnered merchandise in markets like China, and in an attempt to free himself from the contract, he tried to intimidate executives by showing them pornography.
Forbes estimated that the adidas partnership was worth about $1.5 billion to Ye. His current net worth is now thought to be around $400 million.
On October 25th, Gap released a statement suggesting they were trying to speed up their divorce from Ye. “We are taking immediate steps to remove Yeezy Gap product from our stores and we have shut down YeezyGap.com,” the company wrote. “Antisemitism, racism, and hate in any form are inexcusable and not tolerated in accordance with our values. On behalf of our customers, employees, and shareholders, we are partnering with organizations that combat hate and discrimination.”
Even those who are used to problematic clients are dropping West. He had engaged Camille Vasquez, the lawyer who helped Johnny Depp win his defamation lawsuit against Amber Heard, to help him get his businesses back on track. But she let him go after less than a week because he refused to retract his antisemitic comments. The only partner that seems interested is the failing right-wing platform, Parler. If you’d like, you can revisit our timeline of his antisemitic comments now.
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