Adidas has dropped its lawsuit against rapper Kanye West after ending the Yeezy partnership due to his antisemitic rants in 2022. CEO Bjorn Gulden said they “don’t need to fight anymore”, adding that Adidas will sell the last of its lucrative Yeezy stock by the end of the year.
The German sportswear giant had been in a dispute with West since they cut ties two years ago. It has now ended all legal proceedings and come to a settlement with no financial exchanges from either party.
During a quarterly earnings call, Bjorn Gulden said: “There aren’t any more open issues, and there is no money going either way.
“Both parties said we don’t need to fight anymore and withdrew all the claims.
“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 anybody anything anymore. So whatever was is history.”
The sportswear giant went into business with Kanye West in 2014 and birthed the sell-out Yeezy range. It shortly became one of the most successful sportswear partnerships in history and helped propel West to becoming a billionaire.
However, in October 2022, the rapper went on an antisemitic rampage on social media and in interviews leading to Adidas terminating the Yeezy partnership. With ongoing pressure to respond, the company said his comments were “unacceptable, hateful and dangerous” and that it would “not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech”.
West, who has more Instagram followers than there are Jews, said his wealth tumbled by £1.5 billion ($2 billion) after various partnerships ended, such as one with Balenciaga, as a consequence of his “dangerous” hate comments.
In 2023, Gulden changed his tune and came to the rapper’s defence, saying that his comments were “very unfortunate, because I don’t think he meant what he said.
“That meant we lost that business”, he told the podcast In Good Company.
Ending the partnership in 2022 left Adidas with a dilemma. If it decided not to sell its huge Yeezy inventory, revenues would have suffered by approximately £1.06 billion (€1.2 billion).
Adidas decided to sell the stock in batches. The remaining Yeezy stocks will be sold by the end of 2024, the company said.
Earlier this month, the company raised its full-year guidance after reporting a “better-than-expected” third quarter, with sales up 7% to £5.39 billion (€6.44 billion).
The company’s operating profit increased to £500 million (€598 million), including a £41.8 million (€50 million) contribution from the sale of parts of the remaining Yeezy inventory.
