Kanye West reportedly showed explicit photos of employees at Adidas

Kanye West has been accused of showing explicit photos of his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, to Adidas employees, as part of behavior that many see as “intimidation tactics,” according to a new report.

The 43-year-old rapper and producer, also known as Ye, lost a modeling contract with the sportswear brand last month over antisemitic comments. He was accused of featuring the photos in an article published by Rolling Stone magazine on Tuesday.

An employee claimed Ye showed a candid photo of Kardashian, 41, during a job interview in 2018.

“My wife just sent me this,” Ye allegedly said after showing a “very revealing and personal” photo on his phone.

According to the report, another former employee alleged that Ye showed “personal” photos of Kardashian to the creative team at his Yeezy brand that same year.

A third, unidentified source told Rolling Stone West that he is “not afraid to show explicit photos or talk about situations that should be kept secret.”

Former Adidas employees have often told Rolling Stone Ye that the explicit photos, including his sex tapes.

One said, “I feel like it was a tactic to break someone down and prove their unwavering loyalty, testing and destroying people’s boundaries.” Another alleged that Yee targeted female employees.

Some of the allegations were made in an open letter titled The Truth About Yeezy: A Call to Action for Adidas Leadership, which was obtained by Rolling Stone. In the letter, the staff blasted Adidas executives for allegedly shutting down their “moral compass”.

The letter urged Adidas board members and senior leaders to address the “toxic and chaotic environment that Kanye West has created” and “a very sick pattern of reckless behavior towards women”.

The letter continued, “In years past, he would explode at women in the room with abusive remarks, and would resort to sexually disturbing gestures when providing design feedback. This kind of response from a brand partner is one that Adidas employees should never experience, and Adidas leadership should not tolerate.” with him.”

In comments to Rolling Stone, employees at Yeezy and Adidas also lamented accepting what they saw as an unwritten rule — “Kanye is just Kanye” — that they said diminished the impact of his alleged behavior.

In the letter, employees accused Adidas of lacking the “responsibility, accountability and protection that Adidas has failed to provide its employees throughout the years we have witnessed of verbal abuse, vulgar rhetoric and bullying attacks”.

“Adidas enabled a lot of this kind of behaviour,” said a former employee who worked closely with Ye.

Former Adidas employees also said that Ye’s behavior was on public display when he released a 30-minute YouTube documentary that showed Adidas executives in a company meeting.

Addressing employees who “may be afraid to speak out,” the open letter claims the documentary showed what was “by no means a new intimidation tactic,” adding that “Kanye’s problematic behavior began during the first year of his partnership with Adidas.” .

On Wednesday, an Adidas spokesperson told The Guardian: “Adidas does not tolerate hate speech and offensive behaviour, and has therefore terminated the Adidas Yeezy Partnership.

“We have been and continue to be actively involved in conversations with our employees about the events that led to our decision to end the partnership. They have our full support, and as we work through the details of the termination, we have made it clear that we want to preserve the talents and skills of our employees within the organisation.

Having said that, we will not discuss private conversations, details or events leading up to our decision to end the Adidas Yeezy partnership and decline to comment on any related speculation.

Ye did not comment. The Guardian could not immediately contact him for comment.

Gap, Balenciaga and CAA talent agency also dropped partnerships with Yi. Twitter and Instagram blocked his accounts.

In October, during Paris Fashion Week, Yi appeared at his own show wearing a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt and in tweets said he plans to go to a “Death con [sic] 3 on the Jewish people.” He also accused Adidas and Gap of stealing his designs.

Yi has previously said that pornography has “ruined” his family. Earlier this month, it is wrote on Twitter: “I’m taking a 30-day cleanse. A verbal fast. No alcohol. No adult movies. No sexual intercourse.”