In 20-plus years in politics, Nathan Sproul has seen a thing or two. As the founder and managing director of the Tempe-based political consulting firm Lincoln Strategy Group, Sproul has worked for five Republican presidential campaigns, including Trump’s 2016 White House run…
Stephen Lemons
Source link
Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, has been sued by an ex-employee who says that the controversial rapper made discriminatory remarks and compared himself to Adolf Hitler while running his Los Angeles-area private school, where he allegedly wanted children to be locked in cages and have shaved heads.
Trevor Phillips filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, accusing Ye of creating a hostile work environment and then retaliating when Phillips spoke up about unsafe work conditions and other issues at Donda Academy.
Representatives for Ye did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
According to suit, Phillips was first hired by the rapper to work on Yeezy, his apparel brand, around November 2022, at a time when multiple businesses were breaking ties with Ye for going on a series of antisemitic tirades in public.
Phillips was then brought on at Donda Academy. In the suit, he says that while working for the school, he heard Ye make various remarks targeting gay and Jewish people, such as: “Yeah I am going for the gays! FIRST the Jews, THEN the gays.”
He also says that he was ordered to do dangerous electrical work at the campus, and that he saw the rapper treating Black members of the school’s staff “considerably worse than white employees.”
Phillips claims he also heard Ye telling two students that “he wanted them to shave their heads and that he intended to put a jail at the school — and that they could be locked in cages.”
When Phillips raised concerns about Ye’s conduct, the suit says the musician “responded mercilessly, with incessant harassment, humiliation, and attempts to both mentally control, and destroy, Phillips.”
The suit includes screenshots of a text message attributed to Ye, where he tells Phillips, “I am on some complete Hitler level stuff,” before adding, “Minus the gas chambers.”
Phillips’ suit says that Ye appeared to fire and rehire him at random, but that he was dismissed for the final time during a Sunday service at the school last May.
During the incident, he claims that Ye confronted him over a garden project and screamed, “I was going to punch you in the face,” in front of dozens of staff members and students.
Phillips is seeking more than $35,000 in damages, according to the complaint.
He is not the first to take legal action related to Ye and Donda Academy. Three former teachers and an ex-assistant principal have also sued, alleging discrimination and wrongful termination.
Their complaints have revealed other strange details about Donda Academy, which allegedly served only sushi at lunchtime and banned chairs from campus.
Yeezy – Source: Jonathan Leibson / Getty
Once again Adidas is attempting to sell more unauthorized Yeezy designs and this isn’t sitting well with Kanye West.
During Super Bowl LVIII weekend Kanye West posted a picture showing he ran into the CEO of Adidas Bjørn Gulden. It’s no secret Adidas has been hurting financially after parting ways with Kanye over his anti-Semitic rhetoric.
According to Yahoo, weeks after the Instagram post things are tense again between West and Adidas over the Yeezy brand. On February 26, several Sneaker leakers sounded the alarm Adidas would allegedly release new Yeezys soon.
The issue at hand is the new colorways weren’t approved by Kanye allegedly and he used Instagram to make it known.
Anybody who loves Ye would not buy these fake Yeezys I never made these color ways I’m not getting paid off of them and adidas is suing me All these celebrities and the public will stand against a T shirt or the color of my hat but when yall see me have my children hidden from me or see an actual Fortune 500 company r*pe one of your heroes in real life don’t nobody say nothing or do nothing As far as the system goes What yall gone do now Take my album down again Freeze my accounts again Threaten people to not work with me again All the new non approved 350’s are cooorny
Kanye was so befuddled by the audacity of Adidas he even uploaded a video so people could hear it from his mouth. In the video, he divulged the brand is suing him for $250,000,000 and not paying him for new releases.
Love or hate Kanye West we all can admit he is right about the 350 being outdated. Adidas selling products not approved by him defeats the purpose of releasing them. Furthermore, It’s starting to feel like they lied about dropping him for his remarks and used that excuse to cut him out of the business.
With Anthony Edwards AE1’s receiving such high praise the brand should put all the focus on him.
Also, playing both sides with the Yeezy brand is starting to look a bit foolish.
Noah Williams
Source link
The ending of the partnership between the artist Kanye West, who now goes by Ye, in October 2022 appeared to come after weeks of his comments about Jewish people and Black Lives Matter, but the New York Times is reporting that the relationship was troubled from the very start.
At a meeting on the collaborative creation of the very first shoe in 2013, Adidas
ADS,
ADDYY,
designers were stunned when West rejected all of the ideas that were presented using fabric swatches on a table and a mood board, the seven-month investigation found. Instead, West, the Times reports, grabbed a sketch and drew a swastika in marker.
The move shocked the Germans in the room. Germany has a strict ban on displaying the symbol of the Nazi era apart from for artistic purposes. Adding to the sense of horror, the company’s founder — Adolf, or “Adi,” Dassler, who died in 1978 — was a Nazi Party member, and the meeting took place close to Nuremberg, where leaders of the Third Reich were famously tried for crimes against humanity.
“A year ago this week, Adidas threw in the towel.”
West’s fixation on the Nazi era continued, the Times reports, when he later told a Jewish manager at Adidas to kiss a portrait of Adolf Hitler every day. He also told Adidas workers that he admired Hitler’s use and command of propaganda.
West also brought porn to the workplace and made crude, sexual comments at meetings, according to the Times report. Before the swastika episode, West, according to the Times, had made Adidas executives watch porn at a meeting in his Manhattan apartment.
In 2022 he reportedly ambushed executives with a porn film. Other workers complained to top managers that he had made angry sexual comments to them.
The artist, said to have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, also frequently cried or became angry during meetings, according to the Times investigation. In one instance in 2019, he reportedly moved the operation designing his shoes to Cody, Wyo., and ordered the Adidas team to relocate. In a meeting to discuss his demands with executives, he threw shoes around the room, the Times reports.
Adidas sought to adapt to this behavior, given how valuable the West-established Yeezy brand was to the company, locked in a perennial battle for both revenue and buzz with its U.S.-based rival Nike Inc.
NKE,
Yeezy sales would rapidly surpass $1 billion a year and help Adidas resonate with young American customers.
Ratings Game (July 2020): Gap hopes it can burnish its image with a new Kanye West clothing line, repeating the rapper’s brand success with Adidas
Managers launched a group text chain they called the “Yzy hotline” to discuss his behavior. To reduce stress on individuals, the company is said to have rotated managers in and out of dealing directly with West.
Over time, meanwhile, Adidas sweetened the terms of West’s deal. Under a 2016 contract, he was entitled to a 15% royalty on sales with a $15 million upfront payment as well as millions of dollars in Adidas stock. In 2019, a further $100 million a year was earmarked for marketing, but, in reality, West could spend those funds at will.
A year ago this week, though, as public awareness of West’s problematic attitudes are remarks spiked, Adidas threw in the towel, and as sales of Yeezy shoes fell away, it warned it would record its first annual loss in decades. As West’s net worth plummeted, the company wrestled with the decision of how to dispense with its final $1.3 billion in Yeezy products, mulling options including disassembly and repurposing, donation to charity, and outright disposal.
When a decision was reached to sell the product — in release batches — with some of the proceeds directed to charity and most of the rest flowing to Adidas, West, even then, was entitled to royalties.
From the archives (October 2022): Kanye West is no longer a billionaire after Adidas shelves Yeezy partnership
Also see (November 2022): Nike parts ways with Kyrie Irving as controversy swirls over Brooklyn Nets star’s apparent endorsement of antisemitic film
After bottoming in October 2022, Adidas shares have mounted a 67% comeback, with relief over the company’s not having had to book a damaging loss on the Yeezy line one factor in the restoration of investor confidence.
Adidas is quoted as having told the Times that it “has no tolerance for hate speech and offensive behavior, which is why the company terminated the Adidas Yeezy partnership,” while West reportedly declined requests for interviews and comment.
The Times investigation is said to have been based on access to hundreds of previously undisclosed internal records.
Read on: Michael Jordan is now worth $3 billion. Here’s what billionaire athletes have in common.
By .
Adidas said Friday that it is releasing a second batch of high-end Yeezy sneakers after cutting ties with rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, as the German sportswear brand seeks to unload the unsold shoes while donating to groups fighting antisemitism.
The online sale, to start Wednesday through Adidas smartphone apps and its website, follows an earlier set of sales in May. Models that will be available include the Yeezy Boost 350 V2, 500, and 700 as well as the Yeezy Slide and Foam RNR.
The company cut ties with Ye in October after he made antisemitic and other offensive remarks online and in interviews. That left Adidas holding 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) worth of unsold Yeezys and searching for a responsible way to dispose of them.
READ MORE:
Kim Kardashian Weeps, Says She ‘Feels So Bad’ For Ex Kanye West Amid Anti-Semitic Comments
Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden said in May that selling the popular sneakers and donating some of the profits was the best solution to deal with the unsold inventory and make a difference. He said the company spoke with nongovernmental organizations and groups that were harmed by Ye’s comments and actions.
Part of the profits from the sales of the Yeezy shoes will go to the Anti-Defamation League and the Philonise & Keeta Floyd Institute for Social Change, run by social justice advocate Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd.
Shoes sold directly by Adidas in North America will include blue square pins established by Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism as a symbol of solidarity in rejecting antisemitism, the company said.
READ MORE:
Adidas May Continue To Sell Kanye West’s Yeezy Designs Without Name: Report
The Anti-Defamation League calls the sale “a thoughtful and caring resolution” for the unsold merchandise and that “any attempt to turn the consequences of (Ye’s) actions into something that ultimately benefits society and the people he has hurt is most welcome.”
Adidas declined to give details on numbers of shoes that would be released for sale and how much of the proceeds would be donated. Asked if Ye would receive royalties from the sales, the company would only say that “we will honour our contractual obligations and enforce our rights but will not share any more details.”
READ MORE:
Report: Beyoncé And Adidas Part Ways
The company said Monday that the first sale of Yeezy shoes helped its preliminary second-quarter financial results and contributed to it raising its outlook for the year — from a high single-digit decline in revenue to a mid-single digit decline.
That would still amount to an operating loss of 450 million euros (more than $494 million) this year, instead of a loss of 700 million euros.
Adidas, which reports its earnings for the first half of the year on Thursday, said it expected future Yeezy sales to further boost its results.
Melissa Romualdi
Source link
Remember when Kanye West went on a tear and, in a series of cascading failures, alienated himself from the industry and lost all of his contracts?
After a series of controversial statements, a flop of a Paris Fashion Week show, and problematic behavior that culminated in an antisemitic rant…Kanye West’s unchecked platform was finally checked. One by one, industry players spoke up against him until finally, he lost his deal with Adidas — the seminal collaboration which birthed his Yeezy shoe product.
In the brand’s official statement, they said: “Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech. Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful, and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect, and fairness.
After a thorough review, the company has taken the decision to terminate the partnership with Ye immediately, end production of Yeezy branded products, and stop all payments to Ye and his companies. adidas will stop the Adidas Yeezy business with immediate effect.”
So, with Kanye gone, Adidas was left with the question: what the hell to do with all those Yeezys?
Since the collaboration’s first shoe was released in February 2015, Adidas x Yeezy was a force in the streetwear and sneaker industry. Especially after Ye released his own line Yeezy, the streetwear world began to imitate his vision. In 2020 Forbes described Yeezy’s rise as “one of the great retail stories of the century.”
And they were right — Ye’s impact in fashion cannot be denied. He even paved the way for designers like Virgil Abloh. But after making the statement that they were cutting ties with him, Adidas was at an impasse.
Therefore now, they’ve taken the stance we all knew they were going to take: they’re selling the shoes.
On Thursday, May 11 at an investors’ conference, CEO Bjørn Gulden announced that Adidas would: “sell parts of this inventory and donate money to the organizations that are helping us and that was also hurt by Kanye’s statements.”
The real reason for this decision: profits, allegedly.
Since halting the sale of the Yeezy line, the company took a $441 million hit in sales, according to their quarterly earnings report at the beginning of May.
So feign shock that a week later, they decided to just sell the shoes. And no one is surprised.
This is similar to the DC Universe doubling down on Ezra Miller as The Flash in anticipation of the film’s success. Despite Ezra’s own slew of controversial headlines, joint CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran instead said they would give an answer about Miller’s future “when the time is right.” We all know this meant “depending how the film performs,” especially since when pressed, they only offered the vague: “We’re figuring it all out.” It’s all a money game.
Adidas’s version of “figuring it out” is donating an undisclosed portion of the Yeezy sales to undisclosed charities. For them, this means they get to retain their moral high ground while getting a tax break for their donations. Win-win for a giant corporation!
LKC
Source link
It’s the age-old question: should we branch out as a brand and sell our souls to the runway…or should we stick to what we know? For most brands, the answer is it’s worth a shot. And for Harley-Davidson, fashion isn’t as much of a stretch as you’d think.
You know the Harley logo, and you’ve seen the massive storefronts that apparently don’t just sell two-wheelers. You see, those ubiquitous trucker hats and baby tees embossed with that recognizable orange logo already make the motorcycle company a ton of cash. They did $270 million in clothing sales alone in 2022.
So it’s no surprise that they’re scaling up from logo trucker hats to make a real play at entering the fashion world. They even tapped former Yeezy co-creator Louise Goldin as Harley’s first-ever creative director to lead the way. Goldin’s genius aided the infamous Kanye “Ye” West in creating his siganture monochromatic streetwear that has been endlessly iterated by brands everywhere.
And now, Goldin will try her hand at appealing to a younger, trendier market with Harley-Davidson’s fashion moment. That’s right…they aren’t looking to reel in more 40-50-year-old predominantly male customers. It’s about a real shot at the fashion world, on runways and at Fashion Weeks everywhere.
The new wave of Harley-Davidson, titled “H-D Collections,” will feature elevated takes on the classic Harley look. Graphic tees, sleeker designs, and subtle logos are wrapped into a blend of chic streetwear and functional workwear. With Goldin’s expertise, the brand isn’t straying too far from themselves, while still leaping away from the gimmicky t-shirts with eagles on the front.
H-D Collections
Harley Davidson
And of course, there’s leather. It wouldn’t be a biker’s dream line if there weren’t a splash of black leather jackets and moto pants. The collection includes H-D Originals, which delves more into the graphic tee-side of Harley’s iconic look. It’ll also feature an authorized vintage program for the nostalgic Harley fan.
Another collection under the new Harley Davidson is Bar & Shield, which is Goldin’s most expensive line for the brand. Prices range from $95 t-shirts all the way up to $1,500 for those iconic leather jackets.
Goldin is known for using unique fabrics that aren’t mass produced by other brands quite yet. This makes her visions perfect for the new world of Harley-Davidson, especially because she was drawn to the engineering behind it all. Their values are similar, if for different reasons: Goldin sees the beauty in engineering fabrics…Harley sees the beauty in engineering bikes.
With an already solid foothold in the clothing world, it’s easy to see how Harley could go the wrong direction. Too many scorned traditionalist HD fans who feel isolated from the newer, younger crowd that Harley is trying to draw in. The “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality.
However, this could be the start of a new dynasty under Goldin’s reign. Goldin, a fashion nepo-baby in her own right who has worked with big names like Donatella Versace herself, whose collections have been worn by Rihanna and Katy Perry…pairing with the traditional motorbike giant Harley-Davidson can only mean big things for the brand.
Whereas the Nike x Tiffany collaboration failed to commemorate the brand’s roots; Harley-Davidson’s entrance into the fashion community remains classic, yet progressive.
Jai Phillips
Source link
Former employees who worked with Ye’s Yeezy fashion brand are accusing the rapper of “problematic” workplace behavior that partner company Adidas allowed to happen, including sharing explicit photos of Kim Kardashian and showing workers pornography, according to a new report.
In a letter to Adidas executives shared with Rolling Stone, top former Yeezy and Adidas staffers say that Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, created an abusive work culture and used his misconduct as a form of “intimidation.” Instead of intervening, Adidas leadership turned “their moral compass off,” the former employees allege, according to Rolling Stone. The magazine’s Tuesday report, along with a prior story, is based on interviews with more than two dozen former Adidas and Yeezy employees.
These accusations include Ye playing pornography to Yeezy staff in meetings, showing employees intimate photos of his then-wife Kim Kardashian, and playing his own sex tapes to team members.
Titled “The Truth About Yeezy: A Call to Action for Adidas Leadership,” the letter demands that executive board members and the CEO of Adidas address “the toxic and chaotic environment that Kanye West created” as well as a “very sick pattern of predacious behavior toward women” who worked with Ye.
“Difficult moments happened, with executives in the room — VP level or higher — and nothing would be done. You’d still show up to work the next day,” the letter reads. The report and letter come a month after Adidas cut ties with Ye over his antisemitic remarks.
Publicists who were listed as representing Ye did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment. Rolling Stone was also unable to reach Ye, who has reportedly been dropped by multiple representatives and attorneys who could otherwise speak on his behalf.
In a statement to HuffPost, an Adidas spokesperson declined to address the new allegations, saying, “We will not discuss private conversations, details or events that [led] to our decision to terminate the adidas Yeezy partnership.”
“We have been and continue to be actively engaged in conversations with our employees about the events that led to our decision to end the partnership,” the spokesperson said. “They have our full support.”
ANGELA WEISS via Getty Images
Kardashian did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment, nor did her spokesperson respond to Rolling Stone.
One young creative told Rolling Stone that Ye showed him an explicit picture of Kardashian on his phone during a 2018 job interview, and that Ye told him: “My wife just sent me this.” At least one other former employee allegedly remembered Ye showing an erotic video of Kardashian — who filed for divorce from the rapper in 2021 — to the creative team at Yeezy that same year.
Former staff told the magazine that playing pornographic videos during meetings was a regular occurrence, and that Ye would even make them watch his own homemade footage that showed him engaging in sexual activities with women. Ye himself shared documentary footage in October in which he’s seen showing pornography to Adidas executives.
One former employee told Rolling Stone that Ye’s oversexualization also trickled down to the way he’d ask them to design his products — and that Ye once expressed his desire for them to make a sneaker he could ejaculate into.
“Not a sex-toy sneaker but something that you were so into that you would wanna have an intimate relationship,” the employee recalled Ye saying. “He’d be, like, ‘literally fuck.’ He would be very clear on what that meant.”
Ye admitted three years ago to having a “full on” pornography addiction during an interview on “The Zane Lowe Show” podcast.
Adidas plans to sell more Yeezy designs in the new year, though rapper Kanye West, who created the popular shoes, will not be involved.
The German-based company cut ties with West, who legally changed his name to Ye, in October. Ye was dropped following intense public pressure for Adidas to end its partnership with the musician over his recent antisemitic outbursts.
Read more:
Kanye West’s Donda Academy abruptly closes amid antisemitism uproar: report
Read More
During a call about quarterly earnings on Wednesday, Adidas’ chief financial officer Harm Ohlmeyer said the company is likely to continue selling Yeezy designs under a different product name.
“I can confirm that Adidas is the sole owner of all design rights related to existing product, as well as previous and new colorways under the partnership,” he said. “We intend to make use of these rights as early as 2023.”
Business Insider reported the Yeezy Slide could be an exception to this, as the musician owns the patent for that design.
Ye has not spoken publicly about Adidas’ claims they will continue to sell Yeezy designs.
Ohlmeyer said the company will “leverage the existing inventory,” though plans for the product and new branding are still in the works.
On Oct. 25, Adidas ended their partnership with Ye, and released a statement claiming that the company does “not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech.”
At the time, Adidas claimed they would immediately stop production of all Yeezy branded products and halt any payments to Ye.
Last month, the brand predicted the severance from Ye would cause a short-term negative impact of up to 250 million euros (about C$339 million) on the company’s fourth-quarter income.
On Wednesday, Ohlmeyer claimed Adidas could save more than €300 million ($411 million) in royalty payments and marketing fees if they continue to push the product in stores and online.
“This will help us to compensate the vast majority of the top and the bottom-line impact in 2023,” Ohlmeyer said.
Ye’s initial partnership with Adidas began in 2013. The nine-year arrangement was financially fruitful but not without difficulties.
Ye, on more than one occasion, has publicly voiced his upset with Adidas on social media. In September, the rapper accused the company’s top executives of stealing his ideas and leaving him out of important meetings to do with product planning.
Since October, other companies including Balenciaga, Vogue, the record label Def Jam, the major talent agency CAA and the movie studio MRC (who had financed and filmed a documentary about Ye) have all separated from Ye.
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Sarah Do Couto
Source link
Gap has announced that it will officially begin pulling Yeezy Gap items from shelves, effective immediately, following Kanye West‘s antisemitic commentary this past week.
Twitter via @owen__lang
“Our former partner’s recent remarks and behavior further underscore why. We are taking immediate steps to remove Yeezy Gap product from our stores and we have shut down YeezyGap.com,” the company said in a statement. “Antisemitism, racism and hate in any form are inexcusable and not tolerated in accordance with our values. On behalf of our customers, employees and shareholders, we are partnering with organizations that combat hate and discrimination.”
Emily Rella
Source link
