Kanye West was “escorted” from Skechers’ corporate office in Los Angeles after the
singer showed up unannounced and uninvited, according to the shoe company.
In a statement, the footwear brand said the rapper, who legally changed his name to
Ye, engaged in “unauthorized filming” and was ushered out of the building by two
executives after a “brief conversation”.
The brand said: “We condemn his recent divisive remarks and do not tolerate
antisemitism or any other form of hate speech.”
It added: “We again stress that West showed up unannounced and uninvited.”
Ye, has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, has been involved in a string of
high-profile spats with big brands in recent months and many have cut ties.
The scandals are likely to hit the rapper’s income and he has lost his position in
Forbes magazine’s list of billionaires. The magazine estimates the loss of the Adidas
partnership has cut his net worth from $1.5bn (£1.3bn) to $400m.
In the past few hours Ye took to Instagram to address the well-known entertainment
talent agent Ari Emmanuel, who had called on firms to stop working with Ye over his
anti-Semitic comments.
He wrote: “Ari Emmanuel I lost 2 billion dollars in one day and I’m still alive. This is
love speech. I still love you. God still loves you The money is not who I am. The
people is who I am.”
Read Also:Rapper Kanye West no longer a billionaire after Adidas terminates deal
On Tuesday, Adidas’s ended its Yeezy brand collaboration with Ye saying it does “not
tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech”.
His products will be pulled from sale with immediate effect, said Adidas.
The collaboration was put under review last month after the rapper showed a “White
Lives Matter” T-shirt design at Paris Fashion Week.
Days later, the rapper posted anti-Semitic comments on his Twitter account, leading to his account being blocked. Ye responded to his suspension by re-joining
Twitter and saying he would go “death con 3 On Jewish people”, earning him a second
disbarment.
Cutting the partnership, which has been hugely successful, means Adidas will make a
net loss of £217m in 2022, it said.
It has also been reported that a $15,000-a-year Christian school opened by Ye earlier
this year has temporarily closed its doors. In an email seen by The Times, the
principal of Donda Academy in California said ”at the discretion of our founder,
Donda Academy will close for the remainder of the 2022-2023 school year effective
immediately”.
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