Foot Locker Inc. is removing Yeezy shoes from its sales floors in light of recent news surrounding the fashion brand.
Adidas cut ties with Kanye “Ye” West, the founder of the Yeezy brand, on Tuesday after the designer made repeated antisemitic comments. As a result, Adidas said it would “end production of Yeezy branded products and stop all payments to Ye and his companies” and “stop the adidas Yeezy business with immediate effect.“
Foot Locker instructed all of its stores to remove all pairs of Yeezys from their sales floors, according to an email sent to employees, which was viewed by FN. According to the email, employees have been asked to hold to hold Yeezy shoes in the backroom until further direction is given.
Foot Locker confirmed this move in a statement to FN and said it had instructed retail operators to pull Yeezy product from shelves and digital sites.
“Foot Locker, Inc. does not tolerate any form of antisemitism, or hateful and discriminatory behavior,” the company said in a statement. “While we remain a partner with adidas and carry a wide assortment of their collections — we will not be supporting any future Yeezy product drops, and we have instructed our retail operators to pull any existing product from our shelves and digital sites.”
Losing Yeezy sales in Foot Locker could be especially detrimental to the shoe retailer that recently shared that the amount of Nike product in its stores would be significantly less.
In May, Adidas expanded a partnership with Foot Locker to focus on “product innovation, elevated experiences, and deeper consumer connectivity.” The new partnership targeted more than $2 billion in retail sales by 2025, nearly tripling levels from 2021, Adidas said. It is unclear how much of this would have been generated by Yeezy product.
According to Williams Trading analyst Sam Poser, given the Yeezy fallout, this partnership “has a far less chance now to be successful, than the low percent of success we expected when the deal was initially announced.”
As for Adidas-owned stores, the company said it would “stop the adidas Yeezy business with immediate effect.”
In the wake of the news, other retail stores have taken similar measures to distance themselves from the Yeezy brand and its founder.
Gap, which ended its contract with Yeezy in September, said on Tuesday that it was taking “immediate steps to remove Yeezy Gap product” from stores. Gap said it had also shut down YeezyGap.com.
In 2021, West struck a 10-year deal for Yeezy Gap with Gap Inc. and the option to renew after 5 years. West launched his Yeezy x Gap line for the first time at brick-and-mortar Gap stores on July 21 along with product from the Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga collection.
“Antisemitism, racism and hate in any form are inexcusable and not tolerated in accordance with our values,” Gap Inc. said in a statement. “On behalf of our customers, employees and shareholders, we are partnering with organizations that combat hate and discrimination.”
Before Adidas’ announcement, Balenciaga, CAA, Vogue and more big names revealed they were cutting ties with Ye as well.
