Kanye West and Adidas reach settlement over Yeezy partnership termination

Adidas has said they have reached a settlement with the rapper Ye, formerly Kanye West, to end their dispute over the brand’s decision to terminate their partnership two years ago.

The legal settlement has ended the acrimony with no financial exchanges from either party.

“There aren't any more open issues, and there is no money going either way,” chief executive officer Bjorn Gulden said during a quarterly earnings call, according to Bloomberg.

“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 brand ended its partnership with West in late 2022 after he was accused of making antisemitic remarks on social media and in interviews.

West, 47, posted on X in 2022 that he was “going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE” in one of a series of posts that provoked wide and immediate backlash.

In a statement at the time, Adidas called the remarks “unacceptable, hateful and dangerous” and said they “violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness”.

The company ended its partnership with West’s popular Yeezy fashion line and the split reportedly cost both parties hundreds of millions of dollars.

A year later, however, Gulden defended West.

“I think Kanye West is one of the most creative people in the world, both in music and what I call ‘street culture’. So he’s extremely creative and has together with Adi created a Yeezy line that was very successful,” he said.

“And then, as creative people, he did some statements which wasn’t that good. And that caused Adi to break the contract and withdraw the product. Very unfortunate, because I don’t think he meant what he said and I don’t think he’s a bad person – it just came across that way.”

The CEO went on to describe Adidas’s parting of ways with West as “very sad”.

“That meant we lost that business,” he added. “One of the most successful collabs in history – very sad. But again, when you work with third parties, that could happen. It’s part of the game. That can happen with an athlete, it can happen with an entertainer. It’s part of the business.”

The end of the partnership left Adidas with Yeezy stock worth over £1bn. The company decided against destroying it and giving it away wasn’t an option as it would likely create a resale market.

In 2023, Adidas announced it would be selling its leftover Yeezy inventory in batches and donate part of the proceeds to anti-hate groups. The company made around $437m (£336.2 m) from its first sale of the leftover sneakers.

Adidas made donations to the Anti Defamation League and the Philonise & Keeta Floyd Institute for Social Change run by George Floyd’s brother.

West was banned from X and Instagram in late 2022 because of his comments and he was dropped from a brand partnership with Balenciaga. CAA, one of the biggest celebrity talent agencies in the US, also cut ties with the musician.

The same year, Ye appeared on Alex Jones’s Infowars show and declared that he “likes Hitler”.

In October 2023, The New York Times reported that Adidas ignored a decade’s worth of West’s alleged objectionable outbursts, misconduct and a preoccupation with Jews and Hitler.

According to the report – based on interviews with past and current Adidas employees and internal company records – West allegedly told Jon Wexler, the company’s former global head of entertainment and influencer marketing, to kiss a picture of the German dictator every day.