Kanye West escorted out of Skechers headquarters, claims to lose $2 billion in one day
A wave of companies and brands have distanced themselves from Kanye "Ye" West after he doubled and tripled down on recent anti-semitic comments
Kanye West continues to be woefully wrong about material consequences. After the rapper doubled down on a series of anti-semitic tweets and comments, he’s now made a return to Instagram asserting he lost “$2 billion in one day.”
A bulk of the financial hit comes as the result of Adidas terminating its high-profile deal with Ye’s Yeezy brand, which Forbes estimates was worth $1.5 billion. It’s a direct (if embarrassingly belated) response to Ye’s assertion in a Drink Champs interview that he “can say antisemitic things, and Adidas can’t drop me.”
Adidas’ move aligns the company with a wave of other major brands with whom the rapper has lost favor. Since his initial comments, Ye’s talent agency CAA has dropped him, a finished documentary on his life has been shelved, and his controversial Donda Academy has suddenly shuttered its doors. Vogue, Balenciaga, Gap, Foot Locker, T.J. Maxx, and Skechers have also all cut ties— Ye was even reportedly removed from Skechers headquarters after arriving unannounced and “without invitation.”
“Skechers is not considering and has no intention of working with West,” Skechers shared in a statement. “We condemn his recent divisive remarks and do not tolerate antisemitism or any other form of hate speech.”
Without these endorsements and deals, Ye’s net worth is now closer to $400 million, effectively dismantling his billionaire status. Ushering in further financial turmoil for Ye was a $250 million lawsuit from George Floyd’s family, seeking damages for bigoted and blatantly false comments Ye made about Floyd’s death. However, TMZ reported yesterday that Floyd’s brother Philonise had stopped moving forward with the lawsuit, at least for the time being.
Permitted back onto Instagram after a brief removal, Ye shared in a post yesterday that he’s “still alive” after losing “$2 billion in one day.” He also described his recent comments as “love speech” — a strange way to categorize dog whistles so sickeningly familiar they’ve already emboldened neo-Nazi emissaries. After years of hateful rhetoric, it appears Ye’s cultural weight has finally begun rolling backwards (and picking up speed) in his direction.