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After months wrestling over the fate of milions of unsold Yeezy shoes, Adidas has decided to sell a portion of its remaining inventory and donate the proceeds to chartitable organizations, CEO of the German sportbrand Bjrn Gulden said on Thursday. Adidas cut ties with Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, in late October, following his antisemitic comments on social media and in interviews. As a result, the fate of 1.2 billion euros (USD 1.3 billion) worth of the unsold Yeezys, a lucrative sneaker line launched with Ye, was unknown. At Adidas' annual shareholders meeting, Gulden said the company had spent months trying to find solutions. The CEO also added that Adidas spoke to NGOs and organizations that were harmed by Ye's comments and actions. Burning those shoes cannot be the solution, Gulden said, noting that Adidas was going to try to sell part of the remaining Yeezy inventory and donate money to the organizations that help us and were harmed by what Ye said. Exact deta
Adidas is facing a class-action lawsuit from investors who allege the company knew about offensive remarks and harmful behaviour from Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, years before ending its partnership with him. The German sportsbrand cut ties with its star collaborator in late October, following Ye's antisemitic comments on social media and in interviews. At the time, Adidas said the company does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech and called Ye's remarks and actions unacceptable, hateful and dangerous. Weeks before the decision, at Paris Fashion Week, Ye also wore a shirt with a White Lives Matter slogan which the Anti-Defamation League categorizes a white supremacist phrase that originated as a racist response to the Black Lives Matter movement. The current lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Oregon on Friday, claims that Adidas was aware of the potential harm that Ye's problematic behavior could cause the company for some time pointin
A growing number of Republicans, including former Vice President Mike Pence, criticized Donald Trump on Monday for dining with a Holocaust-denying white nationalist and the rapper formerly known as Kanye West days after launching his third campaign for the White House. Pence, in an interview, called on Trump to apologize and said the former president had demonstrated profoundly poor judgment when he met last week at his Mar-a-Lago club with West, who is now known as Ye, as well as Nick Fuentes, a far-right activist with a long history of espousing antisemitic and white nationalist views. The episode is serving as an early test of whether party leaders will continue to rally behind Trump as he embarks on yet another campaign for the White House after they have spent much of the last eight years being asked to respond to the controversies he's created. Trump has said he didn't know who Fuentes was before the meeting. But he has so far refused to acknowledge or denounce the positions o
Adidas says it is investigating allegations of inappropriate workplace conduct by the rapper formerly known as Kanye West that ex-employees made in an anonymous letter also accusing the German sportswear brand of looking the other way. Adidas, which made his Yeezy line, cut ties with Ye last month over his offensive and antisemitic remarks after facing pressure to follow other brands and companies in ending partnerships with the rapper. It said it expected to take a hit of 250 million euros (USD 246 million) to its net income this year from the move. Ye was suspended from Twitter and Instagram over his remarks but has been back tweeting this month. Rolling Stone has reported that it spoke to more than two dozen former Yeezy and Adidas workers and obtained a letter from several former Yeezy employees to the sportswear company alleging that Ye created a toxic work environment by showing sexual photos and videos in meetings, making vulgar comments and bullying the people who worked for
Kanye West's Twitter account has been restricted by the company. Not just that, his Instagram account has also been restricted.According to Variety, a Twitter spokesperson confirmed the news. However, the reason for which his account was restricted by the micro-blogging site hasn't been specified by the company yet.Many have been linking the decision to restrict his account to his last two tweets which have been largely criticized as anti-semitic.Twitter has removed the first tweet for "violating the Twitter rules." Later, West asserted in the post that he couldn't be antisemitic and claimed that Jews had "toyed" with him.He wrote, "I'm a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I'm going death [sic] con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE". The tweet has now been deleted."The funny thing is I actually can't be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also. You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda," West added.Later, he tweeted, "Who do you think ...