Adidas Shareholders to Demand Answers Over Kanye West Investigation

A major Adidas shareholder, Union Investment, is set to call for transparency over the company’s relationship with Kanye West at the annual meeting on Thursday.

Janne Werning, the head of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) at Union Investment, is expected to ask Adidas to reveal the findings of its investigation into West’s behaviour after he was banned from Twitter for posting an antisemitic rant last year.

The rapper-turned-fashion designer had been in a partnership with Adidas for his Yeezy brand since 2013, and the company described their 2016 deal as the “most significant partnership between a non-athlete and a sports brand.”

However, the relationship was tumultuous, with Rolling Stone reporting that West displayed erratic behaviour in front of Yeezy staff in 2020, and showed them explicit images of his then-wife, Kim Kardashian, in 2018.

The magazine also reported that he claimed that his last Yeezy collection was inspired by “skinheads and Nazis.”

Adidas executives decided to end the partnership with West after just two minutes, and Bloomberg reported that the company forecast that the split would halve its earnings for the year.

Union Investment had previously contacted Adidas in November 2020 to inquire about when its executives became aware of West’s behaviour, and is hoping that the internal investigation will be made public at the annual meeting.

Werning is expected to call on Adidas to transparently disclose the findings of its investigation and “clean up the scandal.”