Bjørn Gulden, chief executive of Adidas, has lamented the end of the company’s lucrative partnership with Kanye West, saying, “I don’t think he meant what he said,” regarding the rapper’s antisemitic comments in October 2022.
West, who has changed his name to Ye, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that he was “going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE … You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda”. On Instagram, he posted a screenshot of a conversation with Diddy, where he wrote: “Ima use you as an example to show the Jewish people that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influence me.” Ye had caused further anger earlier that month by including T-shirts with the slogan White Lives Matter in a Yeezy fashion show in Paris.
Later in October, Adidas ended a creative partnership with Ye that had begun in 2015, saying his comments were “unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness”.
In December, Ye caused further outrage after posting an image of a swastika blended with the Star of David to X and praising Adolf Hitler and Nazis in an interview with Infowars host Alex Jones. “I see good things about Hitler,” said Ye. “Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler … [Nazis] did good things too.” He added: “There’s a lot of things that I love about Hitler.”
Yes. Yes he did. He doubled, tripled, quadrupled down on them.
It’s not like he’s been saying this stuff to a lesser extent for years
Yeah but then the 21 Jump Street remake completely changed his life…somehow.
I just read it and wow that was a wild tweet.
He realized he was wrong about an entire people due to an actor’s performance, not even something the actor did to show they were a good person.
Lectures the general public on what everyone knows already.
Claims Christians can’t be antisemitic. Might have meant antisemitics can’t be Christian or that Christians shouldn’t be antisemitic, but honestly hard to tell.
Translation: Bjørn Gulden is putting out feelers to see if Kanye is still universally hated for his antisemitic comments so he can decide whether it would be a good business decision to reinstate the Yeezy line.
This is a story about how corporations don’t actually mind outright Nazism, but they’ll bemoan the necessity to disavow Nazis, if it hurts their profits not to
West, who has changed his name to Ye, wrote on X (formerly Twitter)
The planet is burning but this is the news.
I hate everything about that sentence, the words, how they’re placed, all of it.
And I will continue to call him Kanye West and continue to call it Twitter because I don’t cater to the whims of billionaires.
NGL adidas, being one of two companies that were started by essentially heirs to the dude who got rich designing and manufacturing the nazi boots, then later saying “ol antisemitic yeezy isn’t that bad right?” for hopes of more money… is admittedly a really bad look.
How fucking hard is it to find another celeb that has just as much reach and offer them a deal? Is that really that hard, is there a shortage?
How hard is ut to focus on making good shoes by adults that got paid a fair wage instead of selling overpriced garbage with a celebrity spokesperson
And who is going to believe that?
Gullible Kanye fans
Well that’s an interesting stance for a company founded by a literal Nazi to take.
Adidas has chosen poorly.
Either he means what he says and can endorse products, or he’s mentally ill and we need to give him grace or whatever the fuck and he should seek help.
If he’s unstable and we shouldn’t believe what he says, why the fuck are you offering him deals?
I don’t know what could convince a marketing team to sign any deal with someone like Kanye. Sure, he has massive appeal to a small group of people but for the most part he’s widely disliked. And it’s not like this is new information, he’s only stayed relevant by keeping himself in the news with controversy after controversy for the last decade or so. Adidas can try to walk his comments back all they want but he’s going to keep doing and saying stupid shit for the rest of his life.
Knowing people with severe bipolar Kanye always makes me sad. He refuses to be on medicine and just says wild shit. It doesn’t excuse any of his statements, but he could still come back from this. Fat Kanye was happy.
I hope that one day, I can say some wildly inoffensive thing that causes me to be shunned by society. And then some billion dollar company CEO goes, “Nah he didn’t mean it.”
You don’t just start spouting hateful rhetoric without putting some thought into it beforehand.
Say what you will about the guy, but his music is brilliant.
I thought you were serious for a minute, I was about to start ranting about Life of Pablo being overrated trash.
