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Kanye West and Adidas reach settlement after years of lawsuits
Adidas has reached an out-of-court settlement with Kanye West – known as Ye – ending all legal proceedings between them, the sportswear brand has said.
Adidas and West had been embroiled in multiple lawsuits for the past two years after the German manufacturer ended a partnership with the rapper over antisemitic comments he made in 2022.
A mountain of West’s popular brand of Yeezy trainers were left unsold after the partnership ended.
Adidas CEO Bjorn Gulden said: “There isn’t any more open issues, and there is no… money going either way, and we both move on”.
He declined to give further details of the deal.
“There were tensions on many issues,” he added. “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.”
Yeezy trainers had been a big hit for the company and were much sought after on the used market, routinely selling for hundreds of pounds.
Last year, Adidas confirmed some proceeds from the sale of Yeezy stock – which was initially in high demand but more recently selling at a discount – would be given to charity.
Organisations including the Anti-Defamation League, the Philonise & Keeta Floyd Institute for Social Change and Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism were named as beneficiaries.
When announcing it as cutting ties with West, the company said: “Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.”
It came after the 47-year-old said he was going to go to “death con 3” on Jewish people and suggested slavery was a choice.
At the time, West was also criticised by his ex-wife Kim Kardashian who said “hate speech is never OK or excusable”.