People have been attacking Kanye West from all sides ever since his controversial comments on slavery surfaced from his interview with TMZ on Tuesday (Mar. 1). Though many people are anti-Yeezy these days, one sneaker company is adamant about not joining the boycott-Kanye bandwagon and they go by the name Adidas.
The German sports brand has decided to stick by their partner amid his outrageous remarks, and has no intentions of dropping Mr. West anytime soon.
Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted congratulated West on his relevance to their brand during an interview with Bloomberg TV yesterday (May 3).
“You know, we neither comment nor speculate on every single comment our external creators are making. Kanye has been, and is, an important part of our strategy. He has been, you know, a fantastic creator and that’s where I’m going to leave it,” Rorsted said.
Rorsted goes on to talk about how Mr. West’s sneaker brand, Yeezy, has helped Adidas’ revenue.
“If you look upon our overall numbers, last year, we did almost $25 billion. We’re a very large company, and Kanye and the Yeezy is a very important part for our brand,” Kasper continued. “So while Kanye is a large important of the Adidas brand, that it is a large global company, with a very strong presence around the world and we’ll continue to perform well”.
Rorsted admits he has not had any communication with Kanye in the past 24 hours following the backlash, but strongly opposes any internal discussions about dropping the 40-year-old from their sneaker brand.
A petition by Care2 Petitions circulated the Internet earlier this week urging for the German lifestyle brand to cut ties with the Chicago native. Lucky for Kanye, Rorsted didn’t opt to entertain the digital request.
Check out Kasper Rorsted’s interview with Bloomberg TV here.
