Kanye West, now known as Ye, demanded action and Adidas didn’t hesitate to deliver. On Tuesday, the rapper criticized the iconic sportswear brand in a lengthy Instagram post, accusing Adidas of continuing to profit from his Yeezy designs despite the partnership having ended long ago.
“When you Google http://Yeezy.com, the Adidas site comes before the Yeezy site,” West complained. “Stop doing this. Stop doing your moves to hold me back. Our partnership is done.”
The post further read: You’re a 60-billion-dollar company that froze my accounts. Now I’m back on my feet (no pun intended) and I’m not going to stand for this (no pun again) I did phenomenal work for you guys and because I stood up for myself y’all tried to intimidate and oppress me.”
View this post on Instagram
By Wednesday night, Adidas positively addressed West’s demands as all references to Yeezy products, including archived articles and promotional material, have been wiped from Adidas’ website. So now, if someone tries to access links or images related to Yeezy, they’ll be led to empty pages. This move comes as Adidas had already announced plans to completely call it quits with Yeezy by 2025.
The fallout between Kanye West and Adidas started in 2022 when the rapper made anti-Semitic remarks. One such act included an Instagram post in October of that year where he shared screenshots of text messages that suggested that Jewish people were controlling Sean “Diddy” Combs. This post was removed for violating Instagram’s hate speech policies.
Ye repeated anti-Semitic stereotypes in his interviews as well, accusing Jewish people of controlling Hollywood, the media, and financial systems. In one interview, he even claimed that a “Jewish underground media mafia” was targeting him. In another interview Ye praised Adolf Hitler, saying, “I see good things about Hitler… Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler.”
These incidents resulted in widespread backlash and the termination of his partnership with the sports brand. At the time, Adidas condemned West’s statements in an official announcement.
View this post on Instagram
Yet, in a 2023 appearance on the podcast In Good Company, Adidas CEO Bjorn Gulden was seen adopting a conciliatory take. “I don’t think he meant what he said, and I don’t think he’s a bad person,” Gulden explained. “It just came off that way… I think Kanye West is one of the most creative people in the world.”
In October last year, Gulden expressed his desire to move past the drama. “There aren’t any more open issues, and there is no money going either way,” Gulden said during a press conference. “Both parties said we don’t need to fight anymore. It belongs in the past.” He also made it clear that Adidas aimed to sell off its remaining Yeezy stock by the end of 2024.