Bjørn Gulden, chief executive of Adidas, has lamented the end of the company’s lucrative partnership with Kanye West saying the rapper 'did not mean' what he said from the past
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00:00 Bjorn Golden, chief executive of Adidas, has lamented the end of the company's lucrative
00:04 partnership with Kanye West, saying, "I don't think he meant what he said."
00:09 As many recall, West posted many anti-Semitic comments on X, formerly Twitter at the time.
00:15 It resulted in a fallout of partnerships from brands, including Adidas.
00:18 Golden elaborated on the incidents in a Norwegian podcast titled "In Good Company."
00:23 He stated, "I think Kanye West is one of the most creative people in the world, both
00:28 in music and what I call street culture.
00:30 So he's extremely creative and has together with Adidas created a Yeezy line that was
00:34 very successful.
00:36 And then, as creative people, he did some statements which wasn't that good.
00:40 And that caused Adidas to break the contract and withdraw the product."
00:44 Now Golden went on to elaborate, claiming that Kanye really didn't mean what he said
00:48 and that Adidas lost a large amount of business due to the comments.
00:52 He further added, "Very unfortunate because I don't think he meant what he said and I
00:56 don't think he's a bad person.
00:58 It just came across that way."
00:59 Yeezy was a very successful line for Adidas, generating more than $1 billion in revenue
01:04 in 2021, which was 7% of Adidas' overall revenue.
01:08 This was also a major source of income for Ye, who took a reportedly 11% royalty cut.
01:14 After the two cut ties, Adidas was lumbered with nearly $1 billion of unsold Yeezy stock,
01:19 which it later sold for a "significant amount" with proceeds handed to groups which combat