Kanye West and Adidas have settled their disagreement over his antisemitic remarks in 2022, which resulted in the cancellation of their “Yeezy” partnership. Following the incident, the sports company first ended the collaboration and started offering Yeezy merchandise at wholesale pricing.
Adidas declared on Tuesday that there would be no monetary exchange between the parties as the legal difficulties with West had been settled. “There [aren’t] any more open issues,” said Bjorn Gulden, CEO of Adidas, who added that all parties agreed there was no need for more confrontation.
Despite pointing out that there had been “tensions on many issues” during the relationship, Gulden stressed that the conflict with West “belongs to the past.” As he explained, these kinds of disputes frequently result in legal negotiations and settlements, and as a result, “No-one owes anything to anybody anymore.”
Adidas has about €1.2 billion (£840 million) in Yeezy inventory that it is selling in phases after severing its relationship with West. A number of non-governmental organizations, including Adidas’s recently established anti-discrimination foundation, will receive donations from the sales.
By the end of 2024, Adidas anticipates selling out the remaining Yeezy inventory. In 2022, the company denounced West’s remarks as “unacceptable, hateful, and dangerous,” stating that they went against Adidas’s pledge to “diversity and inclusion, mutual respect, and fairness.” This move to stop the “fight” with West starkly contrasts the previous position.
Since their 2014 partnership, Adidas and Kanye West have produced one of the most well-known sportswear collections. Many Yeezy products are still selling well at high prices on the resale market, demonstrating the persistence of demand for the brand despite the controversy.
Following his antisemitic comments on social media, West’s accounts were suspended on Instagram and X (previously Twitter) in October 2022, marking the beginning of his initial backlash. He repeated these assertions in a number of interviews over the course of the following two months, not all of which were televised.
West’s outrageous praise of Adolf Hitler during his appearance on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s InfoWars broadcast in December 2022 sparked even more public outrage.
After West’s remarks, Adidas firmly said that it “does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech” and denounced his behavior for being inconsistent with the company’s ideology.
In addition to his economic conflicts, West has been transparent about his mental health issues, disclosing to the world that he had a bipolar disorder diagnosis a number of years ago. These difficulties, along with his split from Kim Kardashian, have kept him in the spotlight.
Both Adidas and West are closing a chapter with the final Yeezy releases. The sports company is now concentrating on repairing its image and donating the money it makes to worthy causes.
Adidas is progressively moving away from its previous affiliation with West and toward a more socially aware path as Yeezy sales and consumer interest in the brand continue to grow.
