Hip Hop News: Kanye West Scores A Victory In Legal Battle Against Adidas (2024)

Kanye West scored an early win against Adidas.

For the last six months, Ye and the German sportswear giant have been at war. Here’s a little history..

In 2013, Kanye announced he’s cutting ties with Nike to join forces with Adidas. He stopped by Ebro In The Morning back then to explain why.

Yeezy 1 season kicked off in 2015. In 2018, Kanye made the wild “slavery was a choice” comment, and that was the first time Adidas had to justify the company’s relationship with the “Jesus Walks” rapper. By 2019, Adidas sales of Kanye’s Yeezy brand skyrocketed and generated $1.3 billion. The company “rewarded” Ye with a “Yeezy Day,” but three years later, Ye reveals they did it “without permission.”

In recent years their money making partnership started to deteriorate. Last year in June, Ye accused the CEO of ripping off his Yeezy Slide design to create the company’s Adilette slide. In the fall of 2022, Ye also made a fake NY Times cover and posted the headline “Kasper Rorsted also dead at 60” on his IG. Soon after, Ye told a Bloomberg reporter he planned to end his existing corporate partnerships and “go it alone.” 

In October, Ye sparked more controversy wearing a “white lives matter” shirt and made Antisemtic comments. During a since-deleted, highly controversial episode of Drink Champs, Ye said, “The thing about me and Adidas is like, I can literally say antisemitic s**t, and they can’t drop me. I can say antisemitic things, and Adidas can’t drop me. Now what? Now what?”

Fast forward to now..Adidas reported a $540 million loss due to unsold Yeezys. Last year, the company was able to Freeze Ye’s bank accounts. In the latest report, Adidas recently filed for an emergency re-freeze, but the judge denied it. Hot New Hip Hop points out Kanye scored a temporary win that’ll allow him to hold onto his assets, for the meantime. The case is on going and Adidas is set to ask for a normal asset freeze in a few days.

Adidas plans to sell its stock of unsold Yeezy shoes and will donate the proceeds from the sales to charity

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