Adidas AG Chief Executive Officer Kasper Rorsted distanced himself from comments about slavery by Kanye West but said the company has not discussed dropping the rapper as a designer.
“There clearly are some comments we don’t support,” Rorsted said on a call. The company plans to talk with West about the matter, he said in an interview with Bloomberg TV after the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings but said its sales were hit by the strength of the euro. The shares fell as much as 6.3 percent in Frankfurt.
West is very important to the German sportswear maker’s strategy, the CEO said in the interview after the company reported quarterly sales, highlighting the tricky balance companies have to strike when their celebrity brand ambassadors veer off the script.
The performer sparked outrage on social media with his comments on slavery in the U.S., in an interview with TMZ this week. “When you hear about slavery for 400 years — 400 years? That sounds like a choice,” West said.
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