Adidas probing claims Kanye West showed explicit images of Kim Kardashian to potential employees
A new report presents a number of allegations about the rapper’s behaviour while working with the sportswear brand
Kanye West shared explicit images of his ex-wife Kim Kardashian with Adidas employees, it has been claimed.
According to Rolling Stone magazine, the rapper and fashion designer has been accused of showing a potential new hire an “intimate” photograph of his ex-wife during a job interview in 2018, while he was still married to the reality TV star.
West, who is legally known as Ye, is said to have shown the person a “very revealing and personal” photo on his phone, telling them: “My wife just sent me this.”
The Rolling Stone article, which was published on Tuesday (22 November) also reported that Ye showed an explicit video of Kardashian, as well as sex tapes he made of himself with other women, to several Adidas co-workers.
The explosive claims were made in an open letter by “prominent former members of the Yeezy team”, which has been seen by the US-based publication.
The letter reportedly said that Adidas bosses were aware of Ye’s “problematic behaviour”, but failed to intervene because they had “turned their moral compass off”.
It was sent to executive board members and Bjorn Gulden, the new CEO of Adidas, with the authors reportedly urging the brand’s leaders to address the “toxic and chaotic environment that Kanye West created”.
In the letter, Ye was also accused of implementing “a very sick pattern of predacious behaviour toward women” and would allegedly make “offensive remarks” or “resort to sexually disturbing references” when giving feedback on designs.
One anonymous ex-employee was quoted by the publication as saying: “I feel it was a tactic to break a person down and establish their unwavering allegiance to him, testing and destroying people’s boundaries.”
In October, Ye released a 30-minute video on his YouTube channel, in which he appeared to show a porn video to Adidas business executives.
Former Adidas employees alleged that such incidents were routine when Ye was in the offices. One person told Rolling Stone that executives at the company were aware of the behaviour and would give others a heads-up if they hadn’t met Ye before.
One Adidas vice president allegedly said: “Hey, just so you know, there’s gonna be this whole porn-reference thing.” A second reportedly said: “It’s gonna catch you off guard the first time. I think he does it to catch people off guard.”
The authors of the letter claimed that Adidas bosses “continued to tolerate [Ye’s] difficult behaviour”, which they said began within the first year of his collaboration.
They called on the German brand’s leaders to issue a public apology to the Yeezy team for their alleged experiences.
“As much as we all would love to solely blame Kanye, the undeniable truth is that the Adidas executive team and the board have been huge enablers,” the letter was quoted as saying.
In a statement provided to Rolling Stone, a spokesperson for Adidas said: “Adidas does not tolerate hate speech and offensive behaviour and therefore has terminated the Adidas Yeezy partnership.
“We have been and continue to be actively engaged in conversations with our employees about the events that lead [sic] to our decision to end the partnership. They have our full support and as we’re working through the details of the termination, we have been clear that we want to keep our employees’ talent and skills within the organisation.”
On Thursday, Adidas said they had launched an investigation into the allegations in response to the letter. The company said in a written statement to the Wall Street Journal that it had “taken the decision to launch an independent investigation of the matter immediately to address the allegations.”
The Independent has contacted representatives for Adidas, Ye and Kardashian for comment.