Kanye West reaches settlement with Adidas after longstanding lawsuit
Kanye West and Adidas were at a stalemate for over two years. However, Kanye and the sportswear brand, valued at over $42 billion, have settled all of their differences out of court.
West and Adidas parted ways in 2022 following the rapper’s series of rants and antisemitic comments that saw him alos lose endorsements from GAP. He was also banned from all social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Adidas was the company that West decided to partner with to launch his exclusive sportswear and sneaker brand, Yeezy. However, once the two parties separated, Adidas continued to sell the shoe, supposedly designed solely by Kanye West. The Graduation creator was also accused by multiple Adidas staff of mistreatment and creating a “toxic and chaotic environment.”
As such, Adidas filed a series of lawsuits against West for his defamatory online claims against the company and more. Earlier this year, Kanye took to Instagram and claimed that the company were suing him, stating, “Let me explain really clearly to you guys what’s happening with Adidas. Not only are they putting out fake colour ways that are not approved, they’re suing me for $250 million.”
He then boldly claimed, “They’re also not paying me for these shoes that they’re putting out that have my name on it. They’re using contract clauses and 50 years of business experience to rape an artist, one of y’all favourite artists, right in front of y’all in broad daylight.”
Due to the nature of Kanye’s initial antisemitic comments, Adidas insisted that some of the proceeds made from Yeezy shoes would go to charities, including the Anti-Defamation League, the Philonise & Keeta Floyd Institute for Social Change and Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism.
Still, the drama did not stop. During this year’s Super Bowl Half-Time Show, Kanye recorded a video redirecting fans from Adidas to his website, Yeezy.com, to purchase the “real” models.
Now, after two long years, Adidas and the ‘Get Em High’ rapper have decided to settle their lawsuits. In a statement, Adidas CEO Bjorn Gulden explained, “There isn’t any more open issues, and there is no… money going either way, and we both move on”. “There were tensions on many issues. 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 any more and withdrew all the claims.”