Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, interviewed Bjørn Gulden, CEO of Adidas, on his podcast “In Good Company” on Sept. 13.
The boss of the world’s second-largest sporting goods company said during the interview, among other things, that Kanye West may not have meant his anti-Semitic statements as they were perceived. Gulden, who calls West “one of the most creative people in the world,” does not approve of the artist’s statements and also pointed out that the incidents happened before he moved from Puma to Adidas as CEO. However, he said, “I don’t think he meant what he said, and I don’t think he is a bad person – it just came across that way.”
Adidas cut off its partnership with West in 2022 after a series of anti-Semitic comments and subsequently had to deal with large Yeezy inventories, which was also not to be underestimated from a financial point of view. It wasn’t until 2023 that the company, under Gulden, decided to sell off the product stock and donate the proceeds.
In the podcast with Tangen, Gulden shares insight into how it was to leave Puma for the main competitor Adidas. He also explains his plan to rebuild Adidas and why he makes quick decisions. Tangen regularly has in-depth interviews with the leaders of some of the largest companies in the world. His bank owns over 2 percent of Adidas, which he said translates into $500 million (€470m).
UPDATE Sept. 25:
After Gulden’s statements were met with criticism, the International Auschwitz Committee (IAK) wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Sept. 23 that Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the IAK, had a “long and good phone conversation” with Gulden about “his misleading statements about Kanye West” in the aforementioned podcast, and that Gulden apologized. “Any anti-Semitic hatred is absolutely foreign and repugnant to him, and so are Kanye West’s outbursts of hatred. This is as true for him as it is for Adidas,” Heubner tweeted. Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), also wrote on X at the end of the week that Gulden had apologized to him personally for the statements.
