Adidas has now put a pause on its planned Yeezy releases, including a planned drop in November.
“As a brand, we will not do a new drop for the remainder of the year both for our internal e-com and retail as well as wholesale,” according to an internal Adidas memo attained by Complex. “We will not be shipping out any new stock, this direction was given at the board level.”
No reason was given for the pause.
Sources speculated to Complex that the move was related to the Israel-Hamas war. Adidas terminated its partnership with Ye, formerly Kanye West, in October 2022 following his string of antisemitic remarks.
The November release was expected to feature the Adidas Yeezy Boost 350 V2 in Bone, Onyx and Zebra colorways along with select Adidas Yeezy 500 and 700 styles.
The termination of the partnership with West left Adidas with over $1 billion of Yeezy stock. Adidas’ results in the second and third quarters have been positively impacted by the sale of parts of its remaining Yeezy inventory, with the first drop occurring in May and a second in August.
Including the positive impact from the two Yeezy drops in Q2 and Q3, the potential write-off of the remaining Yeezy inventory is now said to be around €300 million versus previous estimates for a write-off of approximately €400 million, Adidas said in releasing preliminary results on October 2017. Adidas is donating a portion of the proceeds to organizations working against racism and anti-Semitism.
Photo courtesy Adidas
