Adidas to investigate allegations that Kanye West showed pornography to staff

Sportswear giant Adidas will launch an independent investigation into allegations of misconduct made this week against American rapper and fashion designer Kanye West, including showing pornography at the personnel at company meetings.

Claims by unidentified Yeezy and Adidas employees, which surfaced in a Rolling Stone article on Tuesday, included allegations that the musician, who changed his name to Ye, showed an intimate image of his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, during job interviews, and that his "problematic behavior" was ignored by management. 'Adidas.

Staff allegations included in a letter to Adidas obtained by the outlet included claims that Adidas "turned off its moral compass" and failed to managed to protect employees from "years of verbal abuse, tirades vulgar and bullying attacks".

Adidas said in a statement Thursday that "it is currently unclear whether the charges brought i n an anonymous letter are true" but that he took the allegations "very seriously" and had "decided to launch an independent investigation into the matter immediately to address the allegations".

The sportswear brand initially said it would "not discuss private conversations, details or events that led to our decision to end the partnership with Adidas Yeezy", but it had "been and continues[d] to be actively engaged in conversations with our employees about the events that led to our decision to end the partnership."

In an incident alleged in 2017, Ye yelled at a senior woman on the design team that a Yeezy sneaker was substandard. West allegedly looked down at his foot, then at the employee, and said, "I want you to make me a shoe that I can fuck."

The analysts estimate that the Yeezy partnership accounts for 7% of group revenue. Adidas said it believes the loss of Yeezy will halve its expected earnings this year. It is not yet clear whether Adidas will continue to sell the designs, which the company owns, without the Yeezy logo, which it does not.

The decision to launch an investigation comes after one of Adidas' major shareholders, Union Investment, demanded clarification about the alleged incidents. Last month, Adidas dropped a licensing and design deal with Ye after he made anti-Semitic threats.

Janne Werning, head of ESG capital markets and Stewardship at Union Investment, which owns a 1% stake in Adidas, told the Financial Times: "Adidas must disclose when management and the supervisory board first learned of the internal allegations."