Kanye West and Adidas: The Shocking Swastika Incident and its Impact

Adidas should have foreseen Kanye West’s bizarre behavior when he drew a swastika on a shoe sketch during one of his first meetings with the company 11 years ago.

According to a recent report by The New York Times, shortly after Kanye signed on with Adidas, he expressed his displeasure with some shoe sketches by drawing a swastika on one of them. The incident took place during a meeting that happened near Nuremberg, where Nazis were famously put on trial for war crimes after World War II.

The shock value of Kanye’s actions was not limited to that one meeting. The NYT report reveals that in subsequent meetings, he allegedly told a Jewish Adidas manager to kiss a picture of Adolf Hitler daily and repeatedly praised Hitler as a “master marketer” with a great “command of propaganda.”

Despite Kanye’s disturbing behavior, Adidas continued its partnership with him for nearly 10 years, making a significant amount of money. However, in 2022, they decided to cut all ties with him due to his public embrace of antisemitic beliefs.

The termination of the partnership with Adidas not only cost the company a billion dollars in revenue but also caused Kanye to lose his billionaire status.