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Adidas and Beyonce ‘have parted ways’

The sportswear brand had signed a deal with the singer in April 2019 to relaunch her brand Ivy Park

Beyonce during a 2016 performance in Cleveland, Ohio.(AFP)

By Team Lounge

LAST PUBLISHED 29.03.2023  |  11:00 AM IST

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Sports brand Adidas and singer Beyoncé are ending their partnership, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal report said the break-up would mark a second high-profile split between the German sportswear brand and a celebrity partner. Earlier, Adidas had ended its collaboration with Kanye West over his antisemitic comments.

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Adidas, which had signed a deal with Beyoncé in April 2019 to relaunch her brand Ivy Park, declined to comment, states a Reuters report. 

Another report, published in Bloomberg, stated that “no longer having Beyonce’s Ivy Park collection on its roster takes away a potential route to making up for €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) of sales that Adidas will lose this year as a result of its break from West, now known as Ye, last autumn. On top of the Ye-shaped hole in its sales and profits, now the company has a Beyonce-shaped shortfall too."

“Ivy Park had its roots in a collaboration with fashion mogul Philip Green in 2016. However, Beyonce bought Green out in 2018, after the former Topshop owner faced accusations of sexual harassment, racist abuse and bullying. Green denied the allegations. Less than a year later, the star teamed up with Adidas to produce Ivy Park, bridging the divide between fashion and sportswear," the Bloomberg report adds.

Earlier this month, Adidas chief executive Bjorn Gulden had said adidas would keep partnering not just with athletes but celebrities and artists, according to a 8 March Reuters report.

 "It's not a matter of either/or, you have to do both," he said. "You build credibility as a performance brand by being with athletes, but there's very few athletes that you can do lifestyle with.

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"You will see us invest in more sports, and be wider again than we have been, because that is also the DNA of this company." 

Also read: How will Adidas perform in the post-Kanye West era?