Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, and Adidas have reached a settlement in their long, drawn-out legal battle. On Tuesday (Oct. 29), the footwear giant’s CEO, Bjørn Gulden, revealed that all claims were dropped, with neither party owing the other any financial retribution.
“Both parties said we don’t need to fight anymore and withdrew all the claims,” Gulden shared, per Bloomberg. “No one owes anybody anything anymore. So, whatever was is history.”
Adidas terminated its partnership with Ye in 2022 following his anti-Semitic remarks, which included the “All Falls Down” rapper saying he would go “[DEFCON] 3 on Jewish people.” The German label issued a statement: “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.”
Since then, the rapper has addressed his controversial remarks on songs like “VULTURES” and “KING,” both of which appeared on VULTURES 1.
Gulden broke his silence about their partnership coming to a close during the “In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen” podcast, where he described Ye as “one of the most creative people in the world.” The CEO shared, “That caused [Adidas] to break that contract and withdraw the product. [It’s] 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 situation dealt a financial blow to Adidas, which saw a $655 million drop in sales during the last quarter of 2022. It also left the company with a net loss of around $551 million that year.
The Ye and Adidas settlement arrived months after the Grammy Award winner called them out for selling “non-approved” Yeezy 350 V2s in a “Steel Grey” colorway. He called out other celebrities for remaining silent while an “actual Fortune 500 company [rapes] one of your heroes in real life.”