According to the Bloomberg news agency, the plaintiffs accuse adidas of having been informed about the problematic behavior of West, who suffers from bipolar disorder, years before the end of the cooperation.
However, Adidas did not take any precautionary measures and neglected to keep the financial damage resulting from the cooperation to a minimum, according to the argument of the plaintiffs. According to the BBC on Sunday, Adidas responded and emphasized that they strongly reject the unfounded claims. Adidas added that they will “take all necessary steps to defend ourselves against this”. West, whom TV reality star Kim Kardashian left in 2021 after years of marriage, is not part of the lawsuit.
problems known for years?
In their lawsuit, the investors accuse adidas of having known about West’s questionable behavior for years. This was the subject of talks with ex-adidas boss Kasper Rorsted and other members of management. According to the Wall Street Journal, the topic was already discussed at a meeting in 2018. High-ranking adidas representatives discussed how to minimize the risk for employees who work directly with West. There was also talk of ending the collaboration.
As early as February, adidas announced that it was expecting a loss this year due to the contract with West, which ended in October last year and which has also caused a stir for years with its support of ex-US President Donald Trump. In the worst case, an operating loss of EUR 700 million can be expected in 2023, in the best case a black zero.
Nine percent less sales
Just by stopping sales of the Yeezy brand designed by Kanye West, adidas would miss sales of around EUR 1.2 billion and an operating profit of EUR 500 million in 2023. That will reduce group sales by up to nine percent.
Adidas ended its long-term collaboration with the US rapper last year, among other things because of anti-Semitic statements, but has so far left open what will happen to the Yeezy products that have been produced but not yet sold. Should one decide not to use the goods, another 500 million euros would have to be written off. Last year, adidas operating profit collapsed by more than two-thirds to EUR 669 million (2021: EUR 1.99 billion). The bottom line was a profit of 254 million (2021: 1.49 billion) euros.
At the top of the Wiesenthal Center’s anti-Semitism list
At the end of last year, the Wiesenthal Center came to the conclusion that West’s threats against Jews were at the top of the ten worst anti-Semitic incidents of 2022. The center justified this by stating that West, who now calls himself Ye, made not only constant anti-Semitic statements but also his enormous abused influence on social networks to “use hatred, fanaticism and ignorance as weapons”. West helped make hatred of Jews part of the mainstream on social media.
