After years of litigation, Kanye West has reached an out-of-court settlement with adidas.
According to Reuters, both parties agreed to end all legal proceedings between them, Adidas said on Tuesday (Oct.29), adding that “no money changed hands in the agreement.”
In a conference call, Bjorn Gulden, CEO of adidas shared the news of the settlement but declined to give further details of the deal.
“There aren’t any more open issues, and there is no… money going either way, and we both move on,” Gulden said.
“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 withdrew all the claims,” Gulden added.
“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” he continued. “No one owes anything to anybody anymore. Whatever was is history”, he said.
At one time, West and adidas had a lucrative partnership with the rapper’s hugely popular brand “Yeezy.” They generated $2 billion in annual sales for adidas, accounting for 10% of the company’s total revenue.
In May 2023, West came under fire for his antisemitic comments.
“The thing about me and Adidas is like, I can literally say antisemitic s**t, and they can’t drop me. I can say antisemitic things, and Adidas can’t drop me. Now what? Now what?” West said during a since-deleted, highly controversial episode of “Drink Champs.”
Because of his remarks, Instagram and X (formerly known as Twitter) suspended his accounts.
After cutting ties with West, Adidas reported a $540 million loss due to unsold Yeezys. The company froze West’s bank accounts.
adidas recently filed for an emergency re-freeze, but the judge denied it.
Leave a Reply