The Ivy Park + Adidas partnership is in need of a renaissance

Tickets for Beyoncé’s latest world tour may be flying off the proverbial shelves, but her line of inclusive streetwear isn’t flying off literal ones. According to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, a fashion partnership between Adidas and Queen Bey’s Ivy Park clothing brand has generated weak sales, leaving a ~$200 million hole last year in internal Adidas projections.

🤝 Background: Beyoncé debuted the Ivy Park brand in 2016 in partnership with UK retailer Topshop, then bought full ownership of the brand in 2018. The following year, Adidas put a ring on it (but only through 2023).

Adidas execs expected hundreds of millions of dollars in Ivy Park sales, and promised Beyoncé guaranteed annual fees of $20 million as well as creative control, the WSJ reports. But revenue never lived up to expectations.

• Adidas had predicted the partnership would generate $250 million in sales last year. The actual figure ended up being $40 million (a more than 50% decrease in revenue year-over-year).
• This year, Ivy Park’s sales are projected to be ~$65 million. An earlier Adidas target had pegged that number to be $355 million instead.

🎟📈 Zoom out: While it may not be hard to get your hands on a pair or two of Ivy Park sweatpants at the moment, tickets to the 32-time Grammy winner’s Renaissance tour are a little harder to come by. Demand for tickets that have gone on sale so far has exceeded the number available by more than 800%, per Ticketmaster.