Bjørn Gulden, chief government of Adidas, has given his first in-depth public touch upon the fallout of his firm’s relationship with Kanye West following the rapper-designer’s repeated antisemitic outbursts final 12 months.
“I think Kanye West is one of the most creative people in the world. Both in music and what I call street culture,” Gulden stated after being questioned about West on the Norwegian podcast In Good Company.
“He’s extremely creative and has together with Adi, created a Yeezy line that was very successful. And then, as a creative person, he made some statements which wasn’t that good. And that caused Adi to break the contract and withdraw the product. 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.”
Gulden continued to say that Adidas misplaced “one of the most successful collabs in history,” which he described as “very sad.”
“When you work with third parties, that could happen. It’s part of the game. That can happen with an athlete — it can happen with an entertainer. It’s part of the business,” he added.
Adidas confronted calls from all quarters of the leisure business and politics to drop West from its checklist of companions. At the time, the corporate issued a press release which learn, partly, that the corporate will “end production of Yeezy branded products and stop all payments to Ye and his companies. Adidas will stop the Adidas Yeezy business with immediate effect.”
The firm indicated the price of the transfer can be $246 million in 2022 alone.
The firms and initiatives that separated from the controversial rapper included Adidas, Balenciaga, CAA, and Gap, which Ye pulled away from himself final month. Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel, Gersh’s Bob Gersh, and UTA’s Jeremy Zimmer all spoke out to sentence him.
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