Adidas Plans To Keep Selling Yeezys, But They Won't Be Called Yeezys

Adidas was one of the biggest business deals that Kanye West lost after he started making a series of antisemitic comments.

The Ye-designed Yeezy line of sneakers will continue to hit the market, only they will be doing so under a different name.

And it could happen as soon as next year.

"Adidas is the sole owner of all design rights registered to existing product," Adidas Chief Financial Officer Harm Ohlmeyer said. "We intend to make use of these rights as early as 2023."

According to Insider, Adidas told shareholders about their Yeezy audible during an earnings call on Wednesday.

It makes sense that the company wouldn't want to do away with West's popular designs that have always brought huge sums of money, especially on the resale market.

This is especially true when on the same call, Adidas said that ending their relationship with the embattled rapper will cost them half a billion dollars in profits. Nearly a quarter of a billion of that is supposed to hit them this year alone.

Kanye West, or Ye, had his business relationship with sportswear giant Adidas terminated last month due to a series of antisemitic comments. (Photo by Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images for ADIDAS)

Adidas And Ye Had A Complicated Relationship

Adidas and Ye have almost always had a contentious relationship going back to 2013. West had been known to fight with Adidas executives and even publicly accused the company of stealing his designs.

He was also reportedly miffed at Adidas for not setting up Yeezy retail stores and naming sneakers without him.

Both of those gripes sound very on-brand for Ye.

Ohlmeyer reiterated that all Yeezy intellectual property belongs to Adidas, including "all the versions and new colorways."

There is reportedly one notable exception: Yeezy slides. This is because Ye reportedly owns the patent for them.

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