Kanye West's deplorable TMZ Live interview won't cost him his gig with Adidas, despite the backlash he has received from countless fans, celebrities & others.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted was asked about Kanye West's slavery comments and he explained, "there clearly are some comments we don’t support,” but added that the company has not discussed dropping him from their line.
"We neither comment nor speculate on every single comment that our external creators are making," Rorsted said. "Kanye has been and is a very important part of our strategy and has been a fantastic creator. And that’s why I’m going to leave it, I’m not going to comment on every comment that he or someone else is making."
When questioned further about the issue, Rorsted instead spoke about how much Adidas grew last quarter in the U.S.
"Last year, we did almost $25 billion, we’re a very large company," Rorsted said. "Kanye and the Yeezy is a very important part for our brand, from a revenue standpoint less though, but it’s a very important part of how we promote our products particularly in the U.S. and other parts of the world. At the same time, the brand Adidas grew last quarter in the U.S. 23 percent…So while Kanye is a very important part of the Adidas brand, Adidas is a large global company with a very, very strong presence around the world and will continue to perform well."
According to Metro, thousands have signed a petition calling on Adidas to drop Kanye amid the controversy.