Adidas could lose over $1 billion after terminating Kanye West partnership

Adidas isn't mincing words about its finances in a post-Ye world.

The company has warned it could lose over $1 billion in revenue this year as a result of terminating its partnership with Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, assuming it can't sell its existing Yeezy inventory, CNN reports.

Adidas had been in business with the rapper for nine years and launched the Yeezy clothing and shoe line with him, but the company officially dropped Ye last October over his series of antisemitic remarks.

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In a new statement, Adidas said it's continuing to "review future options for the utilization" of its remaining Yeezy inventory. But the company's financial guidance for 2023 "accounts for the significant adverse impact from not selling" the Yeezy stock, and Adidas warned that not being able to sell this inventory would "lower revenues by around" $1.3 billion in 2023.

"Should the company irrevocably decide not to repurpose any of the existing Yeezy product going forward, this would result in the write-off of the existing Yeezy inventory" and lower the company's operating profit by an additional $534 million this year, Adidas also noted. "The numbers speak for themselves," CEO Bjørn Gulden warned. "We are currently not performing the way we should."

Adidas previously said it would continue to sell Ye's shoe designs without the Yeezy branding. The company's decision to end its partnership with the rapper over his "unacceptable, hateful and dangerous" remarks came after he warned he would go "death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE," but before he openly praised Adolf Hitler.