Two years after their separation, the Adidas brand announced on Tuesday October 29 that it had reached an amicable agreement with American rapper Kanye West. A quarrel which now “belongs to the past”.
After the controversy that occurred in October 2022 at Paris Fashion Week where Kanye West went dressed in a t-shirt displaying the message specific to the American extreme right “White Lives Matter”, the American rapper had done it again, the same month, this time making anti-Semitic remarks on his social networks…
It was too much for Adidas, which then decided to end its partnership with the American star. “After careful consideration, the company has made the decision to immediately end the partnership with Ye (Editor’s note: artistic pseudonym of the rapper). Adidas does not tolerate anti-Semitism or any other form of hate speech.”Adidas then wrote in a press release.
The German company had also decided to stop manufacturing products from Yeezy, the brand of Kim Kardashian’s former companion, and to sell off existing stock at cost price – representing 1.2 billion euros of unsold goods – by donating part of the profits to associations fighting against racism and anti-Semitism. This inventory should be completely liquidated by the end of the year.
An amicable agreement reached
Since this episode, the rapper and the three-stripe brand have been engaged in a relentless legal battle. According to a publication published on Kanye West’s Instagram page in February 2024, Adidas would have asked him for no less than 250 million dollars.
However, this conflict (finally) ended at the beginning of the week. “Both sides said there was no need to fight anymore and withdrew all complaints”actually declared Bjørn Gulden, CEO of Adidas, during a conference call in which AFP participated. An amicable agreement without financial transaction was thus reached: “We no longer owe him anything and he no longer owes us anything. That settles the matter. What happened is now in the past.”he concludes.
Source: www.e-marketing.fr
