Jerry Lorenzo: adidas "Ain't the Same Without" Kanye
Jerry Lorenzo's Instagram bio reads "conviction beyond opinion." Apparently, that means that the Fear of God founder has the conviction to let his opinions be known at a moment's notice.
Our story begins on January 19, when Jerry Lorenzo was in attendance when KidSuper's Louis Vuitton FW23 collection was revealed during Paris Fashion Week.
He must have had some thoughts after the show. The next day, wearing a Balenciaga x adidas hoodie, Lorenzo uploaded an Instagram post to his 1.7 million followers showing a brief statement that Lorenzo presumably wrote himself
It read, simply, "VIRG... paris ain't the same without you. "YE... adi ain't the same without you. miss my dudes," complete with a heart emoji.
Lorenzo deleted the post pretty quickly after it went live but not before it received nearly 20k "Likes" and almost 200 comments, which were almost universally in agreement with Lorenzo, especially about Kanye (a few complained about the Balenciaga hoodie he was wearing in a previous photo, though).
In case you somehow aren't familiar, Kanye, now known as Ye, is almost universally persona non grata following a series of shockingly anti-Semitic rants, deeply questionable allegiances, and some pretty indefensible outbursts. Business partners like Balenciaga and adidas cut ties — even Skechers wouldn't take a meeting with Ye.
Ye has since retreated into hiding, avoiding the public eye even when he suddenly got married to a YEEZY employee in early 2023.
It's not like Ye is a "victim" of cancel culture, to be clear: he said some pretty indefensible shit and deservedly lost business deals. However, Ye's still comfortably wealthy and supported by an ardent fan base unwilling to let actual neo-Nazi co-signs affect the adoration of their idol.
All that being said, it isn't immediately clear why Jerry Lorenzo deleted his Instagram post.
On one hand, any public support for Ye is inherently questionable, so perhaps someone from Lorenzo's team or a peer reached out. On the other hand, Fear of God has an adidas deal called Fear of God Athletics set to debut in 2023 and there may have been concern about stepping on toes by suggesting that adidas is worse off without Ye.
As mentioned earlier, Lorenzo has a habit of speaking freely.
He's called out brands whom he sees as imitating Fear of God and publicly denounced gay marriage, for instance.
Lorenzo deleted the latter statement and it never really came up again. In fact, it's only ever discussed whenever Lorenzo says something similarly provocative.
