The Adidas saga of the Jews: The need for empathy in the fashion industry, not the antisemitism or hatred of Jews

Ye called the Jews antisemitic and said that Adidas can’t drop him because he doesn’t like them. He also threatened on Twitter to “Go death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.”

It’s a dramatic decline from grace for the once-coveted label, especially the branded sneakers that commanded thousands of dollars on the resale market.

Adidas signed West’s brand away from Nike in the middle of the last century. The rap artist and the Adidas brand expanded their partnership in the year 2016 to create the most significant partnership of its kind.

Shares of Adidas fell about 5% in Frankfurt. Adidas said it will release additional information about the financial implications of dissolving its partnership with Ye in its upcoming earnings report on November 9.

There are brands that are changing their name to avoid being associated with West. Balenciaga and Vogue publicly cut ties last week, and on Monday, talent agency CAA dropped West as a client. Production company MRC said that it’s shelving a documentary on West.

The saga of Ye, not just with Adidas but with brands like Gap and Balenciaga, underlines the importance of vetting celebrities thoroughly and avoiding those who are overly controversial or unstable,” wrote Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData in a note Tuesday.

This must never go over the line of decency and basic respect for humanity because there is room for some tension in fashion. Companies or brands that do not heed this will get stung because they become too reliant on a difficult personality to drive their business.

The Nike/AdS/CFT “Yecosystem”: a response to the German sports giant’s suspension of Ye

Ye’s nearly decade-long partnership with the German sportswear giant helped make the rap superstar a billionaire and vaulted his Yeezy branded sneakers to a global audience.

Twitter and Instagram suspended Ye earlier this month after making antisemitic posts, including a post on Twitter threating to go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.”

The company is the latest to isolate Ye in the wake of a string of incendiary remarks, including that slavery was a choice and a leaked interview between Ye and Fox News host Tucker Carlson, in which he said, “I’d prefer my kids knew Chanukah than Kwanzaa, at least it would come with some financial engineering.”

The shoe factory of the Dasslers was turned into a bomb factory after World War II because they were members of the Nazi party.

The two had started manufacturing footwear, including spiked shoes, in Bavaria during the 1920s and were propelled to international fame after the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, where legendary Black U.S. sprinter Jesse Owens won four gold medals wearing a pair of track spikes from the Dassler brothers.

An acrimonious rift between them led to the two splitting off: Adolf Dassler, known as Adi, founded Adidas in 1949. His brother started a rival shoemaking company across the river from Adidas’ operation.

It is a criminal act in Germany to deny the Holocaust or spread Nazism, and can lead to prison time.

In response to the social media companies locking down his accounts, Ye announced that he was purchasing the conservative-friendly Twitter knock-off company Parler, in a move that puzzled tech observers. The transaction has not been made public.

The rapper has said he intends to build his own “Yecosystem,” which would include his own factories and retail stores as a way of fully separating himself from the corporate world.

Retailers aren’t buying it. New product listings associated with it are being blocked by Resellers. The off-price store TJ Maxx doesn’t want any goods associated with the controversial rapper who legally changed his name to Ye.

“There really are no good options for this distressed brand that sat somewhere between prestige and luxury,” said Burt Flickinger, retail expert and managing director at retail consultancy Strategic Resource Group.

Go TRG Sensitivities to Gap’s Discarded Yeezy’s and Other Distressed Products

Gap will probably have to destroy or dispose of unsold products, an analyst said.

Offloading the merchandise into the domestic discount channel probably won’t work, either. TJ Maxx stated that it will not sell any products from the brand.

There’s the environmental impact of destroying or disposing of unsold merchandise. Because of the high environmental cost associated with making clothing and other Apparel, it already comes at a high environmental cost. The problem is compounded by the use of incinerators, which are typical methods for destroying unwanted clothing.

Over 100 million distressed, unsold or returned items are managed by GoTRG every year for manufacturers, online retailers and big-box chains. And they’re anticipating a fallout against the Yeezy brand even in secondary markets.

The CEO of go TRG said that companies like theirs that run secondary marketplaces are going to be just as reluctant to sell products associated with Ye’s brands as retailers currently are.

Rebranding merchandise to camouflage the controversy is another common industry tactic, experts say. It involves removing the distressed brand’s logo, or disguising it in some way.

It is an industry fallback to send problematic goods to countries that have a need and where the product is more important than the brand or fashion.