Four years after Ye became effectively untouchable for many corporate partners, Yeezy is back in mainstream American retail. As of August 13, JD Sports is selling a new slate of Yeezy footwear online and in stores across the U.S. The move – which have seen Yeezy’s YS-01 and YS-02 slides and other footwear styles land at JD Sports locations across major U.S. markets – comes after adidas severed its hot-selling partnership with Ye in 2022.
Since losing the manufacturing, distribution, and retail infrastructure that came with its adidas deal, Yeezy has largely relied on its own direct-to-consumer operation. JD Sports puts the brand back into an established retail network – and on the shelves of a national retailer willing to do business with it.
The Adidas Breakup
The new JD Sports announcement comes against a complicated background for Yeezy, which lost its primary manufacturing and distribution partner in October 2022, when adidas terminated its partnership with Ye after a string of antisemitic and other offensive remarks. The move immediately ended production of Yeezy-branded products, with adidas estimating a negative impact of as much as €250 million on its 2022 net income.
The breakdown subsequently spilled into litigation, with adidas and Ye embroiled in legal disputes in the U.S. and Germany before reaching a settlement in October 2024. The fallout also prompted a securities class action that targeted adidas and its executives over allegations that they misled investors about risks associated with the Yeezy partnership.
On the consumer-facing front, adidas was not alone in distancing itself from Ye. In October 2022, Balenciaga confirmed that it had no plans for any future projects with him, Foot Locker stopped supporting Yeezy product drops and pulled existing merchandise, and Gap removed Yeezy Gap products from its lineup and shut down YeezyGap.com.
The adidas breakup also divided up the intellectual property behind the operation. Adidas said that it retained ownership of the design rights to existing products and their previous and new colorways – and went on to sell its remaining inventory. Meanwhile, Ye’s Mascotte Holdings retained ownership of federal registrations for the YEEZY and YZY trademarks, enabling it to build a new generation of Yeezy products, some of which are now available at JD Sports.
Separating the Brand From its Founder
The intriguing aspect of Yeezy’s apparent comeback is the extent to which the brand can regain its commercial footing despite significant controversy surrounding its famous founder. It is worth noting that Ye is not entirely absent from the JD Sports rollout – the retailer has tagged him in at least one social media post. However, he certainly is not the focus. JD’s marketing largely centers on YZY and the products themselves and its launch announcement describes YZY as “a new system of everyday essentials” without mentioning Ye.
That approach may reflect how the market responds to reputational fallout. Consumers may be willing to separate a controversial founder from his products, distinguishing between buying a product and endorsing the person behind it. At the same time, JD Sports may be able to tap into that demand without putting Ye at the center of the relationship. (There is early evidence of demand: Yeezy’s YS-01 slides quickly sold out at JD Sports.)
And there is precedent for brands recovering from widespread consumer backlash. Balenciaga, for instance, faced viral calls for a boycott in late 2022 after two advertising campaigns prompted outrage, weighing on sales in certain markets and sending the brand down Lyst’s ranking of fashion’s hottest brands. A year later, Balenciaga was climbing back up the Lyst Index, demand was improving in certain markets, and attention was shifting back to its products, runway shows, and collaborations.
Yeezy presents a variation on that same story. Ye remains closely tied to the brand, and there is little indication that the companies that severed ties with him in 2022 are lining up to work with him again. But JD Sports – one of the world’s largest sports-fashion retailers – is selling Yeezy. That makes JD Sports an early test of how far Yeezy can make it back into mainstream retail.
THE BOTTOM LINE: While the JD Sports partnership does not amount to a wholesale rehabilitation of Ye or a return to Yeezy’s pre-2022 position, it suggests that being deemed commercially untouchable is not necessarily permanent. Ye is not alone in this regard: Another timely example comes by way of John Galliano, whose career was upended when he made antisemitic and other offensive remarks in 2011. The former Dior creative director gradually returned to fashion, spending a decade at Maison Margiela and more recently, entering into a two-year creative partnership with Zara. Now, he is set to be the subject of the Costume Institute’s 2027 exhibition at the Met – only the third living designer to receive a monographic show there – a controversial but clear indication that he has been welcomed back into fashion’s establishment.
Yeezy’s trajectory is different: The brand is making its way back into mainstream retail even as Ye has yet to regain the corporate partnerships or widespread approval that he once enjoyed. Together, the two cases show how commercial and reputational rehabilitation can unfold separately – and on very different timelines.
Share
