Investors File Lawsuit against adidas in relation to Kanye West Yeezy Partnership
Investors File Lawsuit against adidas in relation to Kanye West Yeezy Partnership
May 1, 2023
Charlie Tyas
Images: Adidas
The ongoing saga involving adidas and Kanye West has taken another turn for the worse, as reports have emerged that adidas company investors have filed a lawsuit against the Three Stripes, stating that the brand’s executives brushed previous discrepancies committed by Ye under the carpet long before the relationship reached boiling point last year, when adidas cut ties with the rapper altogether.
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adidas ended its relationship with Ye last October due to his barrage of antisemitic remarks made over a series of media appearances.
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The lawsuit filed last week states that this was not the first outburst from Ye and that his erratic behaviour was apparent to upper adidas management years before and had even been discussed by adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted and other staff members at the brand.
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In a report from the Wall Street Journal, an alleged meeting took place in 2018, where senior executives discussed how to prevent staff from interacting with Ye alongside the possibility of cutting ties with him completely.
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The clear grievance from adidas investors comes from the $700 million USD’s worth of projected losses caused by the mass of unsold Yeezy stock - an event which could have potentially been prevented if adidas had made said investors aware of Kanye’s behaviour before the unfortunate consequences became a reality.
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A spokesperson for adidas responded to the lawsuit, saying "We outright reject these unfounded claims (and) we will take all necessary measures to vigorously defend ourselves against them."
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Currently, Ye has not been named as a defendant in the case.
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Expect more details to emerge over the coming months.