Source: Jeremy Moeller / Getty
adidas officially parted ways with Ye aka Kanye West in October 2022. One year later, the sports apparel company is still having to make decisions to further separate itself from the Hip-Hop icon who can’t seem to stop drowning in controversial waters.
Sources have revealed that adidas has decided not to move forward with its plan to release more leftover Yeezy stock in November through the end of this year.
“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,” an adidas rep wrote in a memo obtained by Complex. “We will not be shipping out any new stock, this direction was given at the board level.”
From Complex:
The drop was set to include the “Bone,” “Onyx,” and “Zebra” colorways of the Adidas Yeezy Boost 350 V2. Adidas’ Yeezy 500 and 700 models were also included in the group.
Adidas terminated its deal with long-term partner Kanye West, who now goes by Ye, in October 2022 after he made antisemitic remarks on social media and publicly derided Adidas execs. After the breakup, Adidas stopped releasing Ye’s hugely lucrative Yeezy sneakers. Though Adidas let go of Ye, it was stuck holding over $1 billion worth of outstanding Yeezys that were already in the works before the artist torpedoed his deal.
As previously reported, adidas announced in May that they had resumed selling the sneakers while attempting to avoid the backlash created by Ye’s expressed antisemitism by pledging to donate a portion of the proceeds to “organizations working to combat discrimination and hate, including racism and antisemitism.”
In fact, two retailers that were set to carry the leftover stock for sale speculated to Complex that the about-face adidas has done regarding the release might be due to the controversial conflict between Israel and Hamas. That might also explain why the company felt the need to be so hush-hush, even in an internal memo.
More from Complex:
The internal Adidas communication that Complex viewed regarding the status of Yeezy releases for the remainder of this year does not refer to Ye’s shoes by name, instead calling the drop “Aurora 3.” Sources with knowledge of Adidas’ slate of sneaker launches say that “Aurora” is a code name referring to Yeezys. One source says that this year’s Yeezy releases were split into separate phases: Aurora 1 for the launch of Yeezys in May that flowed through Adidas’ own channels, Aurora 2 for the launch in August that was also available at retail partners, and Aurora 3 for the launch that was scheduled to take place next month via Adidas and its retail accounts.
It’s unclear whether the Yeezy—oops, sorry—Aurora drop has been postponed indefinitely, or just put off until a better, less controversial time. Either way, fans who were hoping to cop a fresh pair of Yeezys will be disappointed.
See how social media’s been reacting to the final Yeezy sales below.
