Kanye West's Yeezy former employees send open letter to Adidas about Ye's 'bullying tactics'

A month after Kanye West and Adidas severed their relationship, a group of former employees wrote an open letter to the shoe giant accusing it of turning a blind eye to the rapper's bullying and inappropriate behaviour.

Excerpts from the letter were included in a piece by Rolling Stone on Tuesday, along with in-depth descriptions of West's alleged behaviour from former employees.

According to the paper, many former employees recalled West's fixation with porn, with some of them describing incidents in which the 45-year-old would show coworkers or applicants for jobs porn on his phone or computer.

The open letter to Adidas tackles both the porn and the bullying, which are both mentioned in the Rolling Stone exposé about West mocking or abusing employees.

"He has, in years past, exploded at women in the room with offensive remarks, and would resort to sexually disturbing references when providing design feedback," the letter read, according to Rolling Stone. "This type of response from a brand partner is one that Adidas employees should never be subjected to, nor should Adidas leadership ever tolerate."

The letter, which People magazine has not seen, is titled "The Truth About Yeezy: A Call to Action for Adidas Leadership." It also highlights the "responsibility, accountability, and protection that Adidas failed to provide their employees throughout what we experienced as years of verbal abuse, vulgar tirades, and bullying attacks."

Numerous former employees are mentioned by Rolling Stone throughout the article; one of them recalled "mind games" being conducted at work. Almost all of them requested anonymity out of concern that West or the shoe firm would take action against them.

An excerpt from the letter calling for a public apology to the Yeezy crew for West's "terrorising behaviour" concludes the magazine's piece.

"As much as we all would love to solely blame Kanye," the letter states, according to Rolling Stone, "the undeniable truth is that the Adidas executive team and the board have been huge enablers."

In a statement to Rolling Stone, an Adidas spokesperson said: "Adidas does not tolerate hate speech and offensive behavior and therefore has terminated the Adidas Yeezy partnership. We have been and continue to be actively engaged in conversations with our employees about the events that lead [sic] to our decision to end the partnership. They have our full support and as we're working through the details of the termination, we have been clear that we want to keep our employees' talent and skills within the organization."