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Adidas is parting ways with another high-profile celebrity partner, only this time under much better circumstances.
The footwear company and Beyoncé will end their working relationship following the release of the latest collection of Ivy Park merchandise later this year. Sales of the brand have underperformed expectations, and dropped considerably last year.
The partnership was set to end after this year, according to the Wall Street Journal, though initially the two sides had discussed adjusting the partnership before deciding to call it off. Adidas pays Beyoncé about $20 million per year for her work with Ivy Park.
The singer launched the Ivy Park brand in 2016, teaming up with Adidas in 2019. Internal documents, reports the Journal, put sales of the brand last year at $40 million, versus internal projections of $250 million.
Adidas famously terminated its relationship with Kanye West last year after the performer’s string of anti-Semitic comments on social media. While the company found itself under pressure to drop the performer, doing so had a ripple effect.
A manufacturing partner that made the Yeezy Foam Runner shoe was forced to cut 142 jobs, and the company reportedly could have been on the hook for royalties payments to Ye for many months after it terminated the relationship.
Additionally, Adidas was left with $1.3 billion in Yeezy shoes after cutting ties with West, which sunk earnings at the end of last year.
While Ivy Park hasn’t had the staying power of Beyoncé’s other ventures, the singer is hardly abandoning the fashion world. She has struck deals with other companies, most recently with French design house Balmain.
