When Beyoncé uses her mysterious persona and brand for a partnership, it can be assumed that the Crazy in Love singer is going to walk away millions of dollars richer from the deal. In turn, those with whom she is partnering would stand to earn a great deal as well. The projections were staggeringly high when it came to what analysts believed Adidas would rake in were they to ink a deal with Beyoncé.
As such, executives at Adidas moved fast to meet with Beyoncé when she parted ways with Sir Philip Green of Topshop after collaborating with him to launch Ivy Park in 2016. A deal was struck to relaunch the activewear division of Ivy Park and everyone at Adidas sat back waiting to make beaucoup dollars. That is until the millions upon millions expected never came to fruition for the company. But thanks to her business savvy, Beyoncé still made a fortune.
Despite underperforming, Beyoncé's clothing line is still earning her millions.
How Much Beyoncé's Ivy Park Was Projected To Make For Adidas
When Adidas partnered with Kanye West, they were making billions in dollars in sales. This made for a profit for the company of hundreds of millions of dollars. The brand had become relevant again.
Wanting to build on that momentum, Adidas set out to find another celebrity to collaborate with. With her eye for fashion and a clothing line of her own, who better to partner with than Beyoncé?
After Beyoncé signed a contract to collaborate with Adidas, it was projected that over time, her products would make more money for Adidas than West's ever had. Given that sales in 2019 alone for "Yeezy were $1.5 billion," this would be a hard hurdle to jump.
But with Beyoncé's popularity, analysts believed it could be done. And when the numbers were crunched, they were staggering.
"Initially, Ivy Park will be smaller than Yeezy, but Ivy Park has the potential to be larger, if managed properly," Matt Powell, senior footwear analyst at the company commented.
While there was not any indication that the first year would make Adidas much money, they had a plan to ensure that Beyoncé's collaborated pieces sold out in a hurry to create more interest. And sold out they did.
Adidas believed they were well on their way to making hundreds of millions to billions of dollars having collaborated with Beyoncé. So much so, after the 2021 sales brought in $93 million, the projected sales were anticipated to be $250 million and $335 million for 2022 and 2023, respectively.
Unfortunately, those numbers did not come to fruition. Instead, 2022 saw $40 million in sales, and based on 2023, sales are only expected to come in around $63 million.
Not only did Adidas not see the revenue they expected for any of the years they were collaborating with Beyoncé, it actually appears that they will be losing millions of dollars per year that they stay in the partnership with Ivy Park.
Beyoncé's Compensation From The Ivy Park Collaboration With Adidas
While Adidas was not making the money they believed they would be collaborating with Ivy Park, Beyoncé had no complaints. This is because every year that the Single Ladies singer worked with Adidas on another collection, she made $20 million, a fixed payment, and Beyoncé got to retain creative control of her brand as well.
This partnership paid well for Beyoncé, given that in 2018, right before she inked the deal with Adidas, her net worth was $335 million. These days, after receiving $80 million from the company, in conjunction with tours and investments, Beyonce's net worth has jumped to $500 million, meaning that Beyoncé does not have to worry about what she spends her money on.
As bad as things may look for Adidas between poor sales with the Ivy Park collection and severing ties with Kanye West and his Yeezy brand that was going downhill after anti-Semitic comments, Beyoncé is doing nothing but laughing all the way to the bank with her massive payday.
At some point, executives began to realize that it was necessary to sever the relationship with Beyoncé so that Adidas did not go under. And because of this, steps were taken for the contract to not be renewed after 2023.
The Future Of Ivy Park With Adidas
Given that Adidas was going to be operating in the red with their Ivy Park partnership, the company ultimately decided to part ways with Beyoncé.
While 2023 was supposed to be the year that the two went their separate ways, there was a clause in the contract that allowed for an extension had the parties wanted to exercise that right, according to Forbes. An extension that was never considered given the poor sales for Adidas and Beyoncé's desire to have total control over her fashion line, once and for all.
Had Ivy Park been as successful as West's clothing line had been, another contract worth tens of millions would have been passed to Beyoncé's team to review. Whether Beyoncé would have taken a second look at the contract or decided to move on at that point is unknown.
But given that she already partnered with Balmain's Oliver Rousteing for a collaboration the day after the split from Adidas, it appears there was already a plan in place to move in another direction for quite some time.
"Designing alongside you was freeing — thank you for allowing me to celebrate the human form, to take artistic risks, to push boundaries and to freely express myself," Beyoncé wrote via Instagram to Rousteing as opposed to giving an interview that could prove to be cringe for the singer.
For his part, it appears Rousteing had the same experience with Beyoncé when designing with her.
"Dear @beyonce creating this couture collection with you was more than a dream," Rousteing expressed on Instagram. "You inspired me every day since the beginning of my career. Renaissance is more than an album it's FREEDOM, it's STRENGTH, LOVE and BATTLE FOR A BETTER FUTURE."
While this is couture versus activewear, it appears that there was a different feel to this collaboration than there was with Adidas. And hopefully, for Rousteing and Balmain, it proves to be more lucrative as well.
