Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, and Adidas have officially reached an agreement, effectively concluding two years of legal proceedings. The German brand divulged on Tuesday that there was no money exchange in the agreement. The legal troubles first ensued when the rapper allegedly made certain antisemitic comments.
CEO Bjorn Gulden said:
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"There isn’t any more open issues, and there is no… money going either way, and we both move on. There were tensions on many issues, and… when you put the claims on the right side and you put the claims on the left side, both parties said we don’t need to fight anymore and withdrew all the claims."
Adidas dubs Kanye West's actions "unacceptable, hateful and dangerous"
According to The Guardian, Guldren continued:
"When you have conflicts like this, you take provisions and you have legal opinions and there are negotiations and there are settlements being done, and this is the end to it. No one owes anything to anybody any more. Whatever was is history.”
Adidas and West first joined forces in 2014, right after the rapper parted ways with the brand's competitor, Nike. Per the outlet, it was the Yeezy lineup that propelled Ye into becoming a billionaire, given its unprecedented success.
However, in October 2022, the rapper took to social media to reportedly post anti-Semitic comments. Adidas immediately swooped in to terminate all ties with him, dubbing his actions “unacceptable, hateful and dangerous." It also asserted that it would “not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech." The statement read:
"Ye's recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company's values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness."
While West went on to double down on his stance in several interviews after that, he did acknowledge the hits he took in the form of several companies dropping him, culminating in a $2 billion loss. Even his social media accounts were suspended.
In December of that year, he made an appearance on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' show InfoWars, where he declared his admiration for Adolf Hitler. Notably, a year later, Gulden defended his character when he said on the podcast In Good Company:
"[it was] very unfortunate, because I don’t think he meant what he said and I don’t think he’s a bad person – it just came across that way. That meant we lost that business. One of the most successful collabs in history – very sad. But again, when you work with third parties, that could happen. It’s part of the game. That can happen with an athlete, it can happen with an entertainer. It’s part of the business.”
The rapper has been vocal about his mental health and struggles with bipolar disorder over the years, and has since separated from his wife, Kim Kardashian.
Since the termination of their contract with Ye, Adidas began selling the leftover Yeezy stocks, worth a whopping €1.2bn. They have been selling the stocks in batches, the proceeds of which go toward anti-discriminatory initiatives founded by the company itself.
According to the Canberra Times, the last of the Yeezy stock will be sold by the end of the year.
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