Under the settlement terms, which does not involve any money changing hands, both parties have agreed to drop all legal claims against each other. News of the settlement came from Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden on a conference call Tuesday, Oct. 29, while discussing third-quarter results.
Gulden literally got the West/Yeezy-thing in his knees when he became Adidas CEO.
“There aren’t any more open issues, and there is no…money going either way, and we both move on,” Gulden reportedly said on the call. He added, “There were tensions on many issues, and…when you put the claims on the right side, and you put the claims on the left side, both parties said we don’t need to fight anymore and withdraw all the claims.”
Adidas has been embroiled in litigation for the past two years over its decision to end its partnership with the musician, now Ye, in October 2022 after a series of anti-Semitic comments. The move affected €1.2 billion in annual revenue and €500 million in operating profit.
After considering destroying and writing off €1 billion of unsold Yeezy products, Adidas decided to sell the inventory and donate a portion of the proceeds to charity in early 2023, when Gulden took over as CEO.
With this settlement, Adidas has released a €100 million provision related to the outstanding legal issues related to the Yeezy split and now plans to donate that amount to charity as well. Including the €100 million, the total amount earmarked for charity related to the Yeezy inventory liquidation is now approximately €250 million.
In Q3 2024 results, the sale of the remaining Yeezy inventory reportedly generated about €200 million in quarterly revenue, down from about €350 million in the year-ago quarter.
