Kanye West won’t be teaming with Foot Locker anytime soon as the footwear chain has reportedly rejected a restock of Yeezy brand.
According to Complex, Foot Locker was slated to receive a shipment of Yeezys to its stores but had a change-of-heart as the company feared backlash for associating with Kanye West in wake of his antisemitic remarks.
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While FL didn’t respond to requests for comment, a source explained that the retailer ran into difficulties trying to integrate a charity aspect into its sale of Yeezys. Foot Locker ended up pulling all Yeezy stock from their shelves.
“Foot Locker, Inc. does not tolerate any form of antisemitism, or hateful and discriminatory behavior. While we remain a partner with adidas and carry a wide assortment of their collections, we will not be supporting any future Yeezy product drops, and we have instructed our retail operators to pull any existing product from our shelves and digital sites,” Foot Locker said in a statement following Ye’s remarks last year.
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However, other footwear branches like Snipes and Finish Line announced that they would still be selling Yeezys.
Like many other brands, adidas cut ties with Kanye following his tirades and the apparel giant’s business severely suffered.
Adidas agreed to bring Yeezys back in February and its decision to sell stock of pre-existing designs is paying dividends. The German sports giant’s recent sell-off of Yeezys gave the brand a boost by 85 percent in quarter two of 2023.
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Despite this sounding like an impressive number, adidas is still posting a loss for the second quarter, with more than $491million in losses for the brand. However, Yeezy sales (which have jumped up due to huge demand for the product) saved adidas from a much larger initial loss of $764million.
“We are happy with the way the second quarter developed,” said adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden in a statement. “The core adidas business was slightly better than we expected. […] The sale of the first part of the Yeezy inventory did of course help both our top and bottom line in the quarter.”
Yeezys are still a huge moneymaker for the “Stronger” rapper. In June, Ye reportedly pocketed $25million from adidas in just 24 hours after leftover Yeezy stock from the pair’s dysfunctional partnership flew off the shelves.
The first of three drops planned for “Yeezy Day 2023” were reportedly a roaring success, with most of the available Yeezy stock being purchased quickly while a portion of profits were donated to an anti-Jewish hate group.
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Instagram account @Kanyewestaurant_ claimed that over 682,300 pairs of Yeezy sneakers were purchased, which would allegedly equate to a $25million payday for Kanye West.
