Kanye West Settles Dispute With Adidas 2 Years After Company Terminated Partnership After Antisemitic Rants & $655 Million Loss

Almost two years after Adidas announced it would no longer work with Kanye West, CEO Bjorn Gulden stated that the company has reached a settlement with West to resolve all legal claims.

In a statement first announced through a quarterly earnings call, Gulden updated on the feud between the two, “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 withdraw all the claims. No one owes anybody anything anymore. So whatever was is history.”

West and Adidas collaborated on a sneaker collection for almost a decade before West’s offensive and unpredictable behavior led to the termination of the partnership. In the weeks following a string of antisemitic tirades, West seemed to dare Adidas to dissolve their partnership when he appeared in a (since-deleted) episode of Drink Champs and taunted, “I can say antisemitic things, and Adidas can’t drop me. Now what?”

In response, in October 2022, Adidas released the statement, “Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech. [West’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.”

The announcement continued, “After a thorough review, the company has decided to terminate the partnership with [West] immediately, end production of Yeezy-branded products, and stop all payments to [West] and his companies. Adidas will stop the Adidas Yeezy business with immediate effect.”

At the time, Adidas declared that it expected the dissolution to result in a net income loss of $246 million.

In the wake of the split, Adidas disposed of over $1.3 billion worth of unsold Yeezy sneakers, which resulted in the company losing over $655 million in sales in three months. Several investors sued Adidas for not properly managing West during the partnership.

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