Investors are fighting Adidas because they say the sports company knew about Kanye West’s bad behavior long before they stopped working together, but they didn’t do anything to limit their risk. Adidas reacted to the lawsuit, saying, “We completely deny these untrue claims.” It also said it “will take all necessary steps to defend itself” against the lawsuit’s investors vigorously.
After cutting relations with the Grammy-winning rapper in October over antisemitic comments, Adidas stands to lose more than $750 million in unsold merchandise from West’s Yeezy brand. But the investors say that Adidas knew Ye’s strange behavior was a problem. They say that former CEO Kasper Rorsted and other managers talked at length about Ye’s behavior for years before letting him go and losing a lot of money. Adidas said West’s anti-Semitic statements were “unacceptable, hateful, and dangerous” when they fired him in October. They also said that they went against “the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect, and fairness.”