The report states that Adidas employees have expressed concerns about Ye’s behavior for years
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CEOs and other senior leaders at adidas discussed the potential fallout from its relationship with Kanye West four years ago, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
In a 2018 presentation to Adidas executives, a group of employees reportedly outlined the risks they faced when interacting with West, who had legally changed his name to Ye. The presentation included several mitigation strategies including severing ties with Yeezy’s creator, the report said.
But Adidas executives did not cut ties when these concerns were raised, but instead continued to meet with Ye to try to maintain the partnership that has brought in nearly $2 billion. dollars per year for Adidas, equivalent to 10% of their revenue. based on Morningstar analyst David Swartz. During a meeting in September this year, the report said, Ye accused Adidas executives of stealing her designs and showing them an adult video.
The German sportswear giant officially ended its partnership with Ye in October after the musician made a series of derogatory and anti-Semitic comments.
“Adidas does not condone anti-Semitism and any other type of hate speech,” the company said in a statement. “Ye’s recent comments and actions are unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and equal.”
One month later, Adidas announced it is investigating the allegations carried out by employees involved in Ye’s conduct following an anonymous letter alleging years of abuse.
According to employees who spoke to the Journal, Ye’s alleged behavior is not new. Some of them have expressed concerns about Ye with leaders and human resources at Adidas since 2018.
“It remains unclear whether the accusations in an anonymous letter are true,” Adidas said in a statement on Thursday. “However, we take these allegations very seriously and have made the decision to conduct an independent investigation into this matter immediately to address the allegations.”
