Photo credit: Rodrigo Ferrari / CC from 2.0
With Adidas dumping more than $1.3 billion in remaining Yeezy inventory, Kanye West should be poised to take advantage of a whopping potential profit of around $140 million.
Headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany, Adidas announced in early May that it would sell an estimated $1.3 billion of already-made Yeezy shoes and donate a “significant portion” of the resulting proceeds “to select organizations that… work to combat discrimination and hatred, including racism”. and anti-Semitism.”
However, Kanye West should also benefit from the sale. According to Bloomberg, the 45-year-old (who is still embroiled in a multimillion-dollar court battle with Gap) is entitled to an 11 percent share of every Yeezy product sold, meaning Adidas will pay him from the aforementioned $1.3 billion could pay around 143 million US dollars in stock not yet moved.
Needless to say, this latest Adidas payday underscores the popularity of the Yeezy line and the immense value the partnership brought to West, who was removed from Forbes’ list of the “richest celebrities.” (Of course, Adidas also made a sizable sum from the deal, and bosses are now grappling with a falling share price and a class-action lawsuit from angry investors.)
To take this point further, a federal judge last week reversed a 2022 court order that had frozen about $75 million in Yeezy bank accounts. The order was the result of an ongoing legal battle initiated by Adidas in November 2022, according to recently unsealed court documents cited by Law360.
The company formerly affiliated with Beyoncé had tried to stop West from draining the accounts in question – Adidas claims it was entitled to the money – while the parties involved negotiated their professional separation. But Billboard has reported that a federal judge previously gave the green light to the freeze ex parte On this basis, the bank pause was officially ended because “Adidas’ failure to file a request for confirmation invalidates the garnishment order.”
Nonetheless, during the arbitration process, Adidas will still argue that it is the rightful owner of the funds, and according to the same source, the presiding judge has left the door open to further motions to freeze Yeezy accounts and assets.
At the time of writing, Kanye West (who is no longer active on Twitter or Instagram) does not appear to have commented publicly on the potential $143 million win or the account delisting order. Adidas’ website, which has been around for a while criticism of wages It pays the people who make its products and shows several variants of the Yeezy Boost 350 V2 are scheduled to go on sale Wednesday for $230 a pair.