Adidas ends tie-up with Kanye West after anti-Jewish remarks
Kanye West continues to cross the lines of what’s acceptable in civil society and is now paying both a financial and reputational price. As you may have already heard, another company has cut ties with Kanye.
This time, it’s Adidas! Yesterday, they cut ties with the profiteering rapper and fashion designer Kanye West and condemned his anti-Jewish remarks, in a move that is expected to halve the sportswear maker’s profits this year. Hey, wasn’t rap supposed to be a grassroots urban protest thing from the ghetto hoods? Now, it’s about $$$$$.
Anyways, the German company said it did not “tolerate anti-Semitism and any other sort of hate speech”, adding that it would end the partnership “immediately”.
The decision comes after West, now known as Ye, said in a recent interview that he could “say anti-Semitic things and Adidas can’t drop me”.
“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,” said Adidas.
What’s going on here?
Well, either Kanye has made a massive strategic blunder that will now cost him millions if NOT billions in corporate deals worldwide, OR he has simply made a strategic decision to position and align himself with the right-wing nationalists around the world who take a position in bigotry against Jews, and black people as well. Which is bizarre.
He reminds me of the Dave Chappelle character, the blind Clayton Bigsby, a prominent white supremacist who doesn’t know that he himself is black. Bigsby becomes a KKK leader while the white racists cheer him on. The funny part is when he is told he is actually an African American. Pissed off, he divorces his wife because “She married a nigga”. It’s hilarious. Watch it below but just keep in mind that it reminds me of Kanye who is now going full racist and bigotry. Does Kanye know he’s black? Or is this something more strategic?
Now, I recently chatted with an ex-Security Chief for Kanye who will remain anonymous. Off the record he says;
“Kanye is a very kind gentle human, very generous and loving. Things come out of his mouth for the most part due to the quality of people and advisors he has around him. I don’t for one second believe he hates Jews or any other religion.”
So is Kanye just a fool who is about to crash land his businesses because he cannot control himself, his impulses, or his advisors? Or is he a shrewd businessman who will now align with the right-wing nationalist forces to become their next leader? It’s not 100% clear at this time.
For me, at this time, with limited information, I am actually buying both; in other words, I am sure he has mental challenges. But because he’s mentally stressed, maybe he believes he’s the chosen one and aims to be the Bizarro-land version of Barack Obama and lead the white man to the promised land; a land where they are in charge and everyone else subservient including but not limited to Jews, Blacks, Hispanics, Chinese, etc… a world they knew and loved. It’s not entirely clear.
To me, too many of these money-power guys with massive wealth confuse their ability to make money with actually being leaders of men. Kanye may be one of them.
In a past world, character mattered to people. Gandhi was a poor man who led millions of people to become the father of modern India. He was respected and valued. History regards him in the highest.
Poor men like Donald Trump and possibly Kanye West think their ability to generate wealth gives them license to lead men, Too many of today’s people buy the golden toilets. In 2023, character just does NOT matter. It’s not a thing anymore! These men have bling and that’s what turns on so many. Bling to them equals winning and leadership. That’s where we are today!
What is the real financial cost to Kanye?
As it stands, Adidas, the world’s second-largest sportswear maker expects to take an up to €250mn hit to net profit this year, with its shares trading down almost 6 percent on Tuesday. Last week, it warned on profit for the second time in three months, saying net income was expected to reach €500mn in 2022.
The slump in profit pointed to “remarkable profitability for the Yeezy franchise”, said Jefferies analyst James Grzinic. “Ultimately, after this update, the 2023 profit challenges have clearly increased,” he said in a note to clients.
The company, which developed and sold sneakers under the Adidas Yeezy brand with West for almost a decade, said it would “end production of Yeezy branded products and stop all payments to Ye and his companies”.
The relationship between Adidas and West was already strained. He previously accused the retailer of stealing his designs in a now-deleted Instagram post. He also claimed that he was offered a $1bn buyout by the company to walk away from their partnership.
Adidas’s move follows that of Kering’s Balenciaga, which ditched West earlier this month after the rapper made controversial statements.
The spate of offensive remarks began during Paris Fashion Week earlier this month when West wore a shirt that said “White Lives Matter”.
He also said during a recent podcast interview with Drink Champs, which has since been removed, that Jewish people “own the Black voice” because of all the prominent Black people “being signed to a record label, or having a Jewish manager, or being signed to a Jewish basketball team, or doing a movie on a Jewish platform like Disney”.
Adidas’s decision comes as the brand searches for a successor to chief executive Kasper Rørsted, who announced his early departure this summer after some large shareholders became dissatisfied with its performance.
The Yeezy line of sneakers has turned into a significant source of sales and profit for Adidas. While the company does not disclose the figures, analysts estimate it accounts for 8 percent of total sales.
Adidas put its longstanding tie-up with West under review earlier this month after “repeated efforts to privately resolve the situation”, the company said in a statement.
Back in 2016, it said its work with West was the “most significant partnership created between a non-athlete and a sports brand”. The group said on Tuesday it was “the sole owner of all design rights to existing products as well as previous and new colorways under the partnership”.
Ahead of the decision, the Central Council of Jews in Germany had lambasted the company. “I know sneakers are a big business, but on an issue of anti-Semitism this is cannot be an obstacle for doing the right thing,” the council’s president Josef Schuster told the Financial Times, calling the issue “a litmus test for the company”.
Schuster also pointed to Adidas’s historic responsibility as the German company had been “enmeshed with the Nazi regime and benefited from it”.
Again, this may be a strategic plan by Kanye to take over the right-wing world. Maybe he wants to be the next Trump? Or maybe he’s just a racist bigoted jackass?
I mean, White Lives Matter? Parlar? Aligning with White Nationalists? He must have some really strange advisors because it just cost him mad $$ or Mr. Kanye is shrewd and will emerge as the new leader of the right-wing extremists! President Kanye 2028?
Stay Tuned because this war between an enlightened diverse society and globalization versus right-wing nationalism continues and this Kanye thing is just the latest manifestation. What next?
Johnny Punish founded VT in 2004. After 20 years at the helm, he “retired” from the daily operations in late 2023 passing the ball over to the new owner of VT, Chief Justin Time. He now writes for VT as “Writer Emeritus”. He is also a global citizen eco-activist, visionary, musician, artist, entertainer, businessman, investor, life coach, podcast host, and syndicated columnist.
Punish is an ethnically cleansed Palestinian-American whose maternal family was evicted from their home in Haifa, Palestine in 1948 by Irgun; a Euro-Zionist Settler Terrorist Group. The family became part of the over 1,000,000 Palestinians who are Al-Nakba refugees (The Catastrophe). The family fled to Beirut Lebanon for 13 years eventually emigrating to the USA in 1961 via a Brasilian passport obtained by his Palestinian Brasilian-born grandmother (In the early 1900s, the family was sent to Sao Paolo Brasil as guest workers in the mining industry. Punish’s father is Italian-American from New York City. Punish’s paternal great-grandparents emigrated to the USA from Naples Italy and Marineo in Sicily in the 1890s. Punish was born in the Bronx, New York in 1963.
Punish was educated at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (1980-81) and California State University Fullerton (1981-1984) with studies in accounting and business. Before the “internets” had been invented, he owned and ran (5) national newspapers in the United States of America from 1987-1998. From 2004 to 2023, he owned and managed VT Foreign Policy retiring at the end of 2023.
Punish is also a recording artist. He has over 100 original songs written. He records and produces music. A member of ASCAP, Punish has several songs placed in feature films. His music is promoted worldwide and played on all digital networks and net radio.
He is also the founder and owner of Global Thinkers, a freedom media that helps free thinkers create real wealth.
Resources: Facebook – YouTube – Apple Music – SoundCloud – Spotify – X (Twitter)
Read Johnny’s Full Bio at JohnnyPunish.com >>>
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“Hey, wasn’t rap supposed to be a grassroots urban protest thing from the ghetto hoods?” Yes it was but since they started to being threatened and jailed for denouncing racism and police brutality in Exceptionalistan that they stoped doing it!
Hey Johnny, your bias is hanging out. At least tuck it in a little, you’re bothering people. I’d like to hear your views on many topics, instead of your constant bashing of certain people of a certain demographic. You sound just like a jealous teenage girl. I’ve only met a couple of billionaires, neither of which were dumb. You don’t get there by being dumb or mentally ill.
So, Kanye says Jews control banking, Hollywood and the media. The next day Chase tells him he has 30 days to get his money out, and the media goes full auto on Kanye. That sort-of proves Kanye correct. Right? You can bash and lie about White Christians 24/7, but you can’t talk about the Jews. Explain why you sound like an establishment tool, troll. Reminder. Get your boosters.
Jealous Teenager? Wife calls me an “Old Man”! Geez us, I can’t get a break!
My guest on VT Radio, Ayman Hakwa, who knows Kanye, said he’s NOT a racist. In my view, Kanye made a strategic error and going after the power. He got shut down for it. In my experience, the levels of power have an agenda. You mess with it, they cut you down. That’s the real big game.
Kanye? Maybe he has a new angle to play and can counter them. But so far, it does NOT seem that way. At VT, we are uncensored and seem to piss everyone off. But we don’t have the audience Kanye has. I suspect if we did, the power would be ALL OVER US daily until we tapped out or countered with a bigger stick. Let’s see where this goes!
He suffers a Bipolar condition. But before judging him watch a clip of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen about how they sold their soul to the devil. Watch vids on how the Hip Hop industry is attacked by Mindprogrammers. And a vid that if you want to make it in the Music industry you have to become a Witch Spells cast on masters of cd’s. Find the vid about Angelina Joli in an Illuminati Ritual. Russell Brand as self proclaimed Illuminati. So rest assured that Kanye West/Ye knows the people behind all these satanic schemes much better, more intimate than most of us. And how can anyone be Antisemitic when referring to people who are not Semites. European Ashkenazi jews descend from normal EU peoples or from converted Khazarians.
In present-day America, a black-turned-white supremacist was sorely lacking.
For urban cops in Columbus, killing one or two Blacks a week is a job promotion issue. For any non-Jewish American : being an anti-Semite is a simple proof of intelligence and lucidity. Note that no white man has yet applied for black supremacy, and even less: no Jew has aspired to the glory of an assimilated Negro, even as a musician (talent is not easily cheated!).
This country, in full socio-intello decay under Jewish radio-control (not anti-Semites, those there) can still do better. The Jewish power destroyed the American social fabric ONLY to seize the army of the USA and NATO. She doesn’t give a damn about the other results of her mental mob busting efforts.
We can therefore expect many other episodes of Don Martin’s comic strip: Fonebone & Karbunckle: “more Masters of the world than Hitler as re-written by Zionism!”
Yo Ye Yo Yo. The rapabet is really unintelligible.
Dear J.P. or G.M.,
Since 2008 I have been writing in Italy that there are people of a strange human race who can only write but not read; who walk on quicksand without sinking.
They have learned to use the same rules already used in Anglo -USA and Mondialism.
Those who only know how to write always repeat the same things they know how to write (and it also applies to Vs. Carisio), like a Soulless Alien (would say Mr. Malanga former university professor x 35 years and scholar of modern physics), even if this has been “debunked.”
But the master of the ball says “it’s mine” and no one can play anymore?
Regards!
There are powers greater and above us pulling power levers! I hear you Beppe, Ciao
The Hollywood “Jews” are actually Turkic Khazarian tribe…to be anti-Semitic, the victim has to be from the Levant which only extended northward to Syria…nowhere near Turkey or modern-day Ukraine…I thought I would point out in the service of accuracy. Regards!
Thank you for the clarification.
You know, not everyone is still buying the Zionist and ADL versions of anti-semitism. There are more people than ever able to make the distinction between Anti-Jewish and Anti-Israeli Policies. It’s a new awakening….. I would like to think we’re playing a small part in helping the world properly define so that intelligent discourse on the real issues of the day is NOT clouded by propaganda.
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