Investigation Unveils Truth Behind adidas and Kanye West Partnership
New York Times journalist Megan Twohey travelled to Portland and Los Angeles to the now . Unsurprisingly, Twohey found years of toxic behaviour from Kanye that was swept under the rug by adidas executives to keep Ye happy and the money flowing. What is surprising though is that Kanye’s antisemitic attitudes and inappropriate behaviour was present as early as 2013, yet the partnership still went ahead.
The first design meeting should’ve been enough for the German shoe company to call it quits. The team had set up samples and sneakers around the room, along with mood boards for the meeting, and when Ye walked in, he was apparently unimpressed. He then grabbed a sketch of a shoe and drew a swastika on the toe. While shocking in most contexts, it was more than shocking in this one since the meeting was taking place in front of Germans, in Germany where Nazi symbols are banned, and at a German company where the founder had been in the Nazi party.
If this wasn’t enough of a warning sign, there’s more. Twohey writes, ‘He later advised a Jewish Adidas manager to kiss a picture of Hitler every day, and he told a member of the company’s executive board that he had paid a seven-figure settlement to one of his own senior employees who accused him of repeatedly praising the architect of the Holocaust.’ It wasn’t just Ye’s antisemitism though, as many interviewees reported that he made ‘sexually and offensive comments, displayed erratic behaviour, and issued very escalating demands’.
adidas did have a Morals Clause, meaning they could end the partnership if Kanye acted in ways that threatened the company’s reputation, but they didn’t use it until they were practically forced to with the widespread cancelling of Kanye last year. The New York Times article comes just days after , with sources citing it was out of respect for the escalation of the Israel-Hamas conflict given Ye’s discourse on the subject; however, there is speculation this pause was taken in anticipation of the NYT publication.