Kanye West reportedly set his sights on Sketchers being his next sneaker distributor but the shoe company turned him away when he showed up to its offices unannounced.
According to TMZ, Ye pulled up to Skechers headquarters in Manhattan Beach, California on Wednesday (October 26) and the Chicago native was allegedly escorted out of the building.
Kanye reportedly didn’t have a meeting on the schedule with executives and so he was forced to leave after a brief conversation about the unauthorized filming he and his team were undertaking on the premises.
“Skechers is not considering and has no intention of working with West,” a spokesperson for the company said. “We condemn his recent divisive remarks and do not tolerate antisemitism or any other form of hate speech. Again, West showed up unannounced and uninvited to Skechers corporate offices.”
It’s unclear what Kanye West’s intentions were but the Skechers sneaker empire is run by a Jewish family as it was founded by Robert Greenberg with his son Michael currently serving as the company’s president.
Kanye is in search of a new partner in footwear for YEEZY after adidas decided to terminate its contract with the “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” artist earlier this week due to his recent anti-Semitic remarks. The move decimated Kanye’s net worth from a reported $2 billion to about $400 million, per Forbes.
“adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech,” the statement read. “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.”
A long line of entities have since severed ties with Kanye including Balenciaga, Vogue, CAA, Def Jam, Gap and more. A pair of superstar athletes in Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown and NFL All-Pro Aaron Donald also left Kanye’s Donda Sports agency.
