According to Adidas, the remaining Yeezy shoes will be sold
and proceeds donated to a charity. This is coming after the fashion brand ended
its business relationship with the rapper over a string of anti-Semitic
remarks.
Reacting to this announcement, Kanye moved to trademark his
Yeezy sock shoes. TMZ reports that the 45-year-old rapper submitted documents
on May 4 by West’s Mascotte Holdings Inc., and they listed the product as ‘YZY
SOCK SHOES.’
It's not clear if this is his next big inspiration, or if it
was just a convenient design he had lying around from years earlier.
Even if West gets his trademark, it's unclear how he would
sell the sock shoes after Adidas ended its relationship with him.
Many retailers would be loathe to carry any product
associated with him after a string of racist and anti-Semitic remarks, as well
as his palling around with white supremacists and alt-right figures, including
Nick Fuentes and Milo Yiannopoulos.
West could also try to sell them via his own Yeezy label,
but he may have difficulties getting someone to even manufacture the socks.
Kanye West's exceptional creativity with Adidas gave birth
to Yeezy.
However, the polarising rap star's antisemitism outbursts
last year forced the company to cut ties with him.
The sportswear giant's CEO Bjoern Gulden, appointed just two
weeks later to Ye's abrupt exit, admitted the fashion mogul's unusual talent to
defend his company's past strong links with the Yeezy creator despite his
"erratic behavior" reports.
"As difficult as he was, he is perhaps the most
creative mind in our industry," the chief executive said in the company's
annual shareholder meeting.
Moreover, after Ye was shown the door, Adidas faced a record
loss because Yeezy brought in 10% of Adidas' annual revenue last year.
Also, the company expected the lost revenue to translate
into $246 million in losses in the first year alone.
Further, a whopping $1.3 billion decline will cause more
trouble to the multi-billion company as Yeezy clothes and shoes will not be
available, not to mention a drop of $534 million in operating profits.
However, the company has ended the impasse by moving forward
to sell some Yeezy products and donating the profits to charity.
"What we are trying to do now over time is to sell some
of this merchandise... burning the goods would not be a solution," the
chief executive referred to one of the options mulled for the 'Yeezy problem.'
Secondly, Adidas' defensive posture also can be explained by
a recent lawsuit by its investors, which left them in a tight spot.
The shareholders sued the company, alleging the company
looked the other way on the father-of-four's reported abnormal behaviour while
"routinely ignoring" complaints against him since 2018.
The investors did not place West's name in the lawsuit, but
they claimed Adidas "failed to take meaningful precautionary measures to
limit negative financial exposure" if the partnership ended.