Adidas Set To Investigate Reports Of Kanye West Showing Porn To Employees

Shoe giant, Adidas, has announced that it would follow up on anonymous complaints by staff concerning rapper Kanye West's alleged workplace misconduct. The father of four has been in several controversies over the past few months ranging from social media harassment of his wife, Kim Kardashian, and his anti-semitic remarks.

Following the rapper's social media posts criticizing Jews, several brands affiliated with West pulled back their support for him. Brands like Gap, Balenciaga, and Adidas all announced that their contracts with the artist had been canceled.

The most recent controversy surrounding West was made by the staff of his previous partner, Adidas. According to reports, the rapper displayed inappropriate workplace conduct, including sexual comments and showing the workers graphic images.

Read on to learn more.

Following the report made by Rolling Stone detailing the experiences of anonymous Adidas staff in the hands of West, the sportswear giant announced its intention to conduct an investigation. Per the statement released on the matter, Adidas acknowledged that the accusations might not be true; however, they were to be taken seriously.

In the post released Thursday, the brand wrote, "It is currently not clear whether the accusations made in an anonymous letter are true. However, we take these allegations very seriously and have taken the decision to launch an independent investigation of the matter immediately to address the allegations."

In the Tuesday report by Rolling Stone, West was accused of displaying provocative, overtly sexual, and intimidating behavior to the Adidas staff, particularly women.

The news outlet reportedly interviewed over two dozen former workers at Adidas and Yeezy, the rapper's fashion brand. They alleged that over the course of a decade, West had displayed several disturbing and "problematic" behaviors in the presence of the staff.

West was accused of creating a toxic and abusive work culture that intimidated workers. The former staff claimed that the rapper's actions included showing explicit pictures of his wife, Kardashian, to them and other pornographic posts.

A young creative said that during a 2018 job interview, the rapper showed him an explicit picture of his wife and said, "My wife just sent me this." A different employee recalled when West allegedly showed the creative team an erotic video of the reality star that same year.

Rolling Stone detailed an alleged incident in August 2017 when West was upset about the quality of a pair of his Yeezys. The rapper allegedly walked up to a senior female employee and said, "I want you to make me a shoe I can f*ck." He was reportedly not confronted for his remark by the Adidas executives present, and the employee took a leave of absence shortly after.

According to former staff, this was not the only time the rapper had used sexual terms to describe how he wanted his products designed. "Not a sex-toy sneaker but something that you were so into that you would wanna have an intimate relationship," they recalled West saying. "He'd be, like, 'literally f*ck.' He would be very clear on what that meant."

In the post titled "The Truth About Yeezy: A Call to Action for Adidas Leadership," the CEO and executive board members of Adidas were asked to address "the toxic and chaotic environment that Kanye West created." Adidas was also asked to talk about the rapper's "very sick pattern of predacious behavior toward women" that worked with him.

The leadership of Adidas was accused of having little to no response to West's actions. According to its staff, the brand was well aware of the designer's alleged unacceptable actions; however, they turned "their moral compass off."

The letter read, "Difficult moments happened, with executives in the room — VP level or higher — and nothing would be done. You'd still show up to work the next day."

Via HuffPost, an Adidas spokesperson released a statement declining to talk about the incidents surrounding their contract termination with West. "We will not discuss private conversations, details, or events that [led] to our decision to terminate the Adidas Yeezy partnership," they said.

The statement continued, "We have been and continue to be actively engaged in conversations with our employees about the events that led to our decision to end the partnership," the spokesperson said. "They have our full support."