scorecardFrom Adidas to JPMorgan, these are all the companies cutting ties with Kanye West after his offensive behavior
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  4. From Adidas to JPMorgan, these are all the companies cutting ties with Kanye West after his offensive behavior

From Adidas to JPMorgan, these are all the companies cutting ties with Kanye West after his offensive behavior

Grace Dean   

From Adidas to JPMorgan, these are all the companies cutting ties with Kanye West after his offensive behavior
Kanye WestEvan Agostini/Invision/AP
  • Major companies have been severing ties with Ye because of his "hateful and dangerous" comments.
  • He wore a "White Lives Matter" t-shirt and went on an antisemitic tirade on Twitter.

Companies are severing ties with Ye

Companies are severing ties with Ye
David Livingston/Getty Images

Major companies have been severing ties with Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, because of his "hateful and dangerous" comments and behavior.

Incidents included wearing a shirt with the words "White Lives Matter," a phrase which has been linked to white supremacist groups, during Yeezy's show at Paris Fashion Week in early October. Ye told Fox host Tucker Carlson that he wore the shirt because it was "funny" and because he thought the motto was correct.

He also donated a box of the T-shirts to homeless people in Los Angeles.

Shortly after his appearance at Paris Fashion Week, Ye posted an antisemitic tirade on Twitter, including saying he was "going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE."

"I can't be anti-Semitic because black people are actually Jew also," he added.

Adidas

Adidas
Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images

Adidas said it had cut ties with Ye on Tuesday. The German company had manufactured and sold sneakers under Ye's Yeezy brand.

"Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech," the company said. "Ye's recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company's values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness."

Adidas said that it had terminated the partnership with Ye "after a thorough review," adding that it would end production of Yeezy-branded products, and stop all payments to Ye and his companies.

Adidas said that the termination of the partnership was expected to have a short-term negative impact of up to 250 million euros ($246 million) on the company's net income in 2022 "given the high seasonality of the fourth quarter."

The company said that it was the "sole owner" of all design rights to existing products as well as previous and new colorways under the partnership. More information will be given at the company's third-quarter earnings announcement on November 9, it said.

An Adidas spokesperson had previously said that its partnership with Yeezy "is one of the most successful collaborations in our industry's history."

Gap

Gap
Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images

Ye sent a letter to Gap in mid-September saying he was ending their working relationship, with his lawyer citing "substantial noncompliance."

Shortly before, Ye had told Bloomberg that he didn't want to work with Adidas and Gap after his contracts expire and instead planned to operate his fashion empire independently.

"It's time for me to go it alone," he said. "No more companies standing in between me and the audience."

Gap's CEO, meanwhile, said in a memo to staff that it was the driving force behind the decision.

"Simply put, while we share a vision of bringing high-quality, trend-forward, utilitarian design to all people through unique omni experiences with Yeezy Gap, how we work together to deliver this vision is not aligned," Mark Breitbard said in the memo, reported on by Bloomberg. "And we are deciding to wind down the partnership."

A source told Bloomberg that Gap would continue selling Yeezy products both online and in stores into the first half of 2023.

Balenciaga

Balenciaga
Kanye West frequently shares his opinions on his family online.      Edward Berthelot/GC Images

Kering, Balenciaga's parent company, told Women's Wear Daily that it had severed ties with Ye.

"Balenciaga has no longer any relationship nor any plans for future projects related to this artist," it said.

Insider reported that Balenciaga had quietly removed all mentions of the artist from its site – including its Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga line.

Vogue

Vogue
Foc Kan/WireImage

A spokesperson for fashion magazine Vogue told Page Six that the publication and its editor-in-chief Anna Wintour had no plans to continue working with Ye.

Fashion editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson had criticized Ye's show at Paris Fashion Week, including the "White Lives Matter" shirts.

"The t-shirts this man conceived, produced, and shared with the world are pure violence," she wrote on her Instagram Stories.

Ye himself then targeted Karefa-Johnson on social media, ridiculing her outfit and saying she wasn't a "fashion person."

JPMorgan Chase

JPMorgan Chase
Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images

JPMorgan Chase has cut ties with Ye, according to conservative commentator Candace Owens, who tweeted a picture of a letter she said he was sent by the banking giant.

In the letter, the bank asked West to transfer his business to another financial institution by November 21, after which point any remaining accounts would be closed and their funds returned by check.

Owens had been pictured wearing a "White Lives Matter" t-shirt alongside Ye.

CAA

CAA
Ye, formerly known as Kanye West.      AP Photo/Michael Wyke, File

Talent agency CAA dropped Ye, news outlets including Deadline, The Los Angeles Times, and Variety reported on Monday.

Deadline reported that CAA only represented for touring, and that he hasn't toured since signing with the agency in 2016.

MRC

MRC
Edward Berthelot/Getty Images

Film and TV studio MRC said on Monday that it is shelving its recently-completed documentary on Ye.

"We cannot support any content that amplifies his platform," executives Modi Wiczyk, Asif Satchu, and Scott Tenley said in a memo.

"Kanye is a producer and sampler of music," they continued. "Last week he sampled and remixed a classic tune that has charted for over 3,000 years — the lie that Jews are evil and conspire to control the world for their own gain."

Twitter

Twitter
Twitter Headquarters is seen in San Francisco, California, United States on September 27, 2022.      ayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

After Ye posted an antisemitic tirade on Twitter, the social-media giant locked his account for violating its policies, though his profile can still be viewed.

The tweet has since been removed.

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