Kanye kicked out of Skechers headquarters after showing up uninvited

Kanye West was escorted out of the California-based headquarters of athletic shoemaker Skechers after he showed up unannounced Wednesday, a day after Adidas ended its partnership with the artist following his antisemitic remarks.

West, who legally changed his name to Ye, “arrived unannounced and without invitation” at Skechers corporate headquarters in Manhattan Beach, southwest of Los Angeles, the company said.

“Considering Ye was engaged in unauthorized filming, two Skechers executives escorted him and his party from the building after a brief conversation,” according to a company statement.

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

Email messages sent to representatives for West weren’t immediately returned.

For weeks, Ye has made antisemitic comments in interviews and social media, including a Twitter post earlier this month that he would soon go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,” an apparent reference to the U.S. defense readiness condition scale known as DEFCON. He was suspended from both Twitter and Instagram.

A Skechers superstore at New Jersey’s The Mills at Jersey Gardens. (Business Wire)

He apologized for the tweet on Monday.

Skechers was founded by Robert Greenberg, and is today run by his son Michael Greenberg, both of whom are Jewish.

A Skechers philanthropic arm is a major funder of the California based Friendship Foundation, an organization providing support for special needs children and their families founded by Rabbi Yossi Mintz.

Rabbi Yossi Mintz, left, Michael Greenberg, second left and members of the Friendship Foundation and Kinecta Federal Credit Union pose with a check for $2.5 million to support children with special needs and education on March 8, 2022. (Business Wire)

On Tuesday, sportswear manufacturer Adidas announced that it was ending a partnership with West that helped make him a billionaire, saying it doesn’t tolerate antisemitism and hate speech.

The German sneaker giant said it expected the decision to immediately stop production of its Yeezy products will cause a hit to its net income of up to 250 million euros ($246 million).

The company had stuck with Ye through other controversies after he suggested slavery was a choice and called the COVID-19 vaccine the “mark of the beast.”

Other companies also have announced they were cutting ties with West, including Foot Locker, Gap, TJ Maxx, JPMorgan Chase bank and Vogue magazine. An MRC documentary about him was also scrapped.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who is visiting the US, told CNN Wednesday that he was happy to see the forceful backlash against West’s remarks.

“Objectively, as an Israeli, as a Jew, as a human being, I am extremely pleased to see this overwhelming reaction against the comments by Kanye West,” he said.