Kanye West and Adidas settle dispute: "We don't need to fight anymore"

Adidas said Tuesday it had reached an amicable agreement with rapper Kanye West to end all legal proceedings between them, without any money being exchanged.  © CHRISTOF STACHE, Jean-Baptiste Lacroix / AFP

The German sportswear giant had been locked in a dispute with the artist, who now goes by the name Ye, since they cut ties in 2022 after allegations of antisemitism against him.

"There [aren't] any more open issues and there is no... money going either way," Adidas CEO Bjorn Gulden told reporters on a conference call, without giving any details of the agreement.

"There were tensions on many issues [but] ... both parties said we don't need to fight anymore," Gulden said.

Adidas and West launched a business deal in 2014 after the rapper ended his affiliation with Nike.

The partnership was one of the most successful sportswear tie-ups in history and the resulting Yeezy range went on to help make West a billionaire.

Ending the partnership in 2022 left Adidas with unwanted Yeezy stock worth some over a billion dollars including shoes and other goods.

Adidas has been selling its huge inventory of Yeezy products in batches and donating the proceeds to NGOs, including a foundation launched by the company itself in March to support anti-discrimination initiatives.

The remaining Yeezy stocks will be sold by the end of 2024, the company said.

Gulden said the drama with West "belongs to the past," speaking as he presented the company's third-quarter results, already made public earlier in October.

Between July and September, Adidas sales totaled $7 billion, a 7% increase on the same period last year.

Adidas said it had increased its financial guidance for the year "to reflect the better-than-expected performance during the quarter and the current brand momentum."