How Adidas ended its fight with Kanye West

Photo: Jonathan Leibson/2016 Getty Images

Adidas has reached an out-of-court settlement to end its dispute with Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) after the brand cut ties with the rapper in 2022 over his reported misconduct and anti-Semitism allegations.

“There are no more unanswered questions and there is no … money flowing one way or the other,” Adidas CEO Bjorn Gulden told reporters in a conference call on Tuesday. He declined to provide details of the agreement, according to Reuters. “There was tension on many issues (but) … both parties said we didn't have to fight anymore.”

“When there are conflicts like this, you make arrangements and you have legal opinions and there are negotiations and settlements are made and that's the end of it,” he added. “No one owes anyone anything anymore. What was is history.” The company will reportedly sell the rest of its Yeezy shares by the end of 2024.

But how did the brand get here? For more than a decade, Adidas allegedly turned a blind eye to Ye's allegedly toxic and anti-Semitic outbursts. A report from New York Just highlights a decade of problematic behavior, including sexually offensive comments, that continued to go unaddressed until the company ended its highly lucrative deal with the rapper in 2022.

The German sportswear brand first partnered with West in 2013 and saw the company's highly coveted, hype-beating garments boost their sales almost immediately and skyrocket the rapper to billionaire status. In the same year, according to the Just, West was unhappy with the proposals presented to him during a meeting with executives in Germany. To express his frustration, West reportedly used a felt-tip pen to draw a swastika on one of the sketches of a shoe – a universally offensive symbol, particularly in Germany, where almost all depictions of the symbol are banned. Just weeks before this incident, West reportedly had executives watch porn in his New York apartment to “stimulate creativity.” Although Adidas had the right to terminate the agreement with West if his behavior began to damage the company's reputation under a contractual clause, it would be years before the company's senior leadership would consider ending the partnership.

Over the next decade, West's erratic behavior continued as Adidas continued to rake in billions of dollars. Sales of the partnership's famous Yeezy shoes alone exceeded $1 billion annually, while employees internally reported abusive behavior on the part of West, including allegedly asking a Jewish Adidas executive to “kiss a portrait of Hitler” every day told colleagues at the company that he “admired Hitler’s leadership.” Propaganda” and once again attacking executives with a sexually explicit film. Employees also complained to supervisors about sexually offensive comments made by the artist.

Instead of containing West, Adidas seemingly accommodated, worked around, and even ignored his behavior. According to the JustCompany bosses created a group text called the “Yzy Hotline” to talk about West, constantly swapping employees who had direct dealings with the artist. Over the years, the rapper's partnership with the brand became even more lucrative as concerns swirled in the background, first in 2016 when he was paid a 15 percent royalty on net sales, $15 million up front and millions of dollars worth of company stock per year were awarded again in 2019 with a $100 million increase, which was theoretically intended for Yeezy marketing but reportedly received little oversight.

Although Adidas ultimately ended its partnership with West after a public tirade of anti-Semitic statements in 2022, the company made one last attempt to squeeze as much money out of the deal as possible in 2023. In May of the same year, the brand began selling $1.3 billion worth of merchandise while Yeezys remained in his possession. While a portion of the proceeds will reportedly be donated to charity, the rest of the proceeds will continue to go directly into the pockets of Adidas and West.