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Adidas may announce the move as early as
Tuesday, the report added.
The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters' request
for comment, while a lawyer representing Kanye West, who now
goes by Ye, did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
Adidas put the partnership under review earlier in October
"after repeated efforts to privately resolve the situation."
Ye has courted controversy in recent months by publicly ending
major corporate tie-ups and for outbursts on social media
against other celebrities. His Twitter and Instagram accounts
were restricted, with the social media platforms saying they
removed his posts that online users condemned as anti-Semitic.
In now-deleted Instagram posts from earlier this year, the
multiple Grammy award winning artist accused Adidas and U.S.
apparel retailer Gap Inc of failing to build contractually
promised permanent stores for products from his Yeezy fashion
line.
He also accused Adidas of stealing his designs for its own
products.
Gap and Ye ended their partnership in September. European
fashion house Balenciaga has also cut ties with Ye, according to
media reports.
Adidas poached Ye from rival Nike Inc in 2013 and agreed to a
new long-term partnership in 2016 in what the company then
called "the most significant partnership created between a
non-athlete and a sports brand."
The tie-up has produced several hot-selling "Yeezy" branded
Adidas sneakers that could cost anywhere between $200 and $700.
The partnership also helped the German brand close the gap with
Nike in the U.S. market.
Yeezy generates about 1.5 billion euros ($1.47 billion) in
annual sales for Adidas, making up a little over 7% of the
company's total revenue, according to estimates from Telsey
Advisory Group.
Shares of the company, which cut its full-year forecast last
week, were down about 3% on the report.
(Reporting by Mrinmay Dey and Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing
by Andrew Heavens, Tomasz Janowski and Sriraj Kalluvila)
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