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The Kanye West and adidas drama has entered a new chapter.
adidas investors have filed a class action lawsuit against adidas, alleging that execs and hire-ups knew that West was erratic, opinionated and had a penchant for public outbursts but didn’t make it known.
West’s outspoken nature is nothing new, but with his antisemitic remarks in October 2022, adidas cut ties with him. However, shareholders say that upon partnering with the Chicago creative back in 2013, they knew what he was capable of, and they didn’t try to mitigate the flack adidas would catch.
“In the Personnel Risk section of the 2018 Report’s discussion of risk, the Company extolled its commitment to having an equitable workplace, and its strategic workforce management process, known as ‘People Strategy,’ while failing to discuss how it routinely ignored extreme behavior from Kanye West,” the suit read.
CNN reports that the lawsuit doesn’t explicitly name Ye, but adidas’ Chief Financial Officer Harm Ohlmeyer and former CEO Kasper Rørsted are listed as defendants.
Adidas shareholders who bought stock in the company between 2018– when he made his infamous “slavery was a choice” comment during a taping of TMZ— and 2023 can be included in the filing.
Ye’s other hateful antics around the time of the partnership dissolute included rocking a White Lives Matter t-shirt and during a taping of NORE’s Drink Champs podcast saying, “I can say antisemitic sh-t and adidas cannot drop me.”
adidas originally put its relationship with Ye under review before ultimately calling it quits because of his dangerous rhetoric.
“adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech. 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,” the press release read last October.
Twitter caught wind of the stock owners’ anger and wondered how they didn’t know West had a history of questionable behavior and was never afraid to share his opinion, no matter how unpopular.
Check out some of the reactions below.
