Chief executive of Adidas, Bjørn Gulden, has given a statement on Kanye West nearly a year after the rapper and multi-hyphenate’s departure from the company. During a recent visit on Norwegian podcast In Good Company, Gulden was asked about West’s contribution to Adidas, the company having a projected $771 million loss after the discontinuation of Yeezy, per Forbes.

Bjørn Gulden CEO of Adidas | Podcast | In Good Company | Norges Bank Investment Managementwww.youtube.com

“I think Kanye West is one of the most creative people in the world. Both in music and what I call street culture,” Gulden said. “He’s extremely creative and has, together with Adi, created a Yeezy line that was very successful. And then, as a creative person, he made some statements which wasn’t that good. And that caused Adi to break the contract and withdraw the product. Very unfortunate because I don’t think he meant what he said, and I don’t think he’s a bad person – it just came across that way.”

Prior to his split with Adidas, West made numerous alleged antisemitic comments, even saying that Jewish people should “forgive” Nazi Party leader and German dictator Adolf Hitler, who died in 1945. West’s comments caught swift backlash, his Twitter and Instagram accounts being deactivated and losing his billionaire status after being dropped by Adidas.

Gulden went on to call Adidas’ partnership with West “one of the most successful collabs in history,” and called the split “very sad.” “When you work with third parties, that could happen. It’s part of the game. That can happen with an athlete — it can happen with an entertainer. It’s part of the business,” he added.