Skechers says it escorted Kanye West from its offices after unannounced visit

October 28, 2022

California-based footwear company Skechers said late on Wednesday, October 26, that Kanye West had come to its corporate offices in Los Angeles “unannounced and uninvited” and was subsequently escorted from the building, where he had been trying to film, reports The New York Times.

“Considering Ye was engaged in unauthorized filming, two Skechers executives escorted him and his party from the building after a brief conversation,” the company said in a statement, referring to West by the name by which he is also known.

“Skechers is not considering and has no intention of working with West,” the statement added. “We condemn his recent divisive remarks and do not tolerate antisemitism or any other form of hate speech.”

An effort to reach a representative for Ye was not immediately successful.

Skechers, in its statement, did not provide any additional details about how the situation had played out.

The episode comes at a chaotic time for Ye, a rapper and designer who has been widely condemned and abandoned by corporate partners over a series of recent provocations, including antisemitic remarks. Over the past month, Ye has worn a shirt reading “White Lives Matter,” a slogan associated with white supremacists, and said on Twitter that said he would go “death con 3 ON JEWISH PEOPLE.”

One of his most important partners, Adidas, said on Tuesday, October 25, that it would end its decade-long relationship with Ye—a move that the company said would cost it 250 million euros (US$246 million) this year

Instagram and Twitter have suspended Ye’s accounts. Ari Emanuel of Endeavor, the parent company of the talent agency WMEcalled on entertainment companies to stop working with him. Vogue vowed to do just that. And the studio MRC said it was shelving a documentary on Ye.

Gap, which had a partnership with Ye that ended last month, said on Tuesday that it was taking “immediate steps” to remove Yeezy Gap products from its stores and had shut down an affiliated website.

And Aaron Donald of the Los Angeles Rams and Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics said on Twitter that they were cutting ties with Donda Sports, Ye’s marketing agency, because of the antisemitic comments.

Research contact: @nytimes