Fitness apparel company Gymshark has ended its relationship with UK YouTuber Brian Davis, better known as True Geordie, following remarks made towards Andrew Tate leading to accusations of discrimination and Islamophobia.
On Monday, November 7, drama erupted as True Geordie was accused of Islamophobic comments, after making a joke that Tate, a Muslim, should “do the right thing,” with an implication that the divisive social media star should “blow himself up” as suggested in a prior comment.
These comments immediately started to go viral and were picked up across TikTok, Twitter, and further afield, eventually being heard by Tate himself.
This is how normalised it is for someone to be Islamophobic. No one will hold @TrueGeordieTG accountable for it either. https://t.co/UZAeFnaDfs
— “Mojo” (@MohamedIdle) November 6, 2022
Tate was quick to respond to Davis, saying: “After me converting to Islam, he made a piece on one of his podcasts saying I’m not true in my conversion, and then insulted all Muslims. Making f**king racist comments about an entire religion as if that’s somehow funny. Let me tell you something my friend, and True Geordie if you are watching this, this is a message directly to you. There are certain times in life when you need to know when to shut the f**k up.
“To insult my religion, and the religion of billions of people across the f**king planet, making ignorant jokes about blowing ourselves up, thinking it’s gonna go without consequence, you’re gonna learn very quickly my friend that was a mistake.”
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This was then met, very swiftly, with an apology from Geordie, who said it was just an “idiotic joke” at the expense of “someone who seriously dislikes me.”
Due to the gravity of the situation, however, many have not accepted the apology, and Gymshark appears to have placed itself in that group.
They put out a short statement the following day, saying the following: “We do not agree with the comments made by Brian, AKA True Geordie, and have suspended our relationship with him indefinitely, effective immediately.”
A statement from Gymshark pic.twitter.com/UkXVcg5DTo
— Gymshark (@Gymshark) November 8, 2022
Geordie himself has not yet responded or spoken out again publicly since the apology. It’s highly possible Gymshark isn’t the last brand to revoke its relationship with him, but time will tell whether this goes further.