After months wrestling over the fate of milions of unsold Yeezy shoes, Adidas has decided to sell a portion of its remaining inventory and donate the proceeds to charitable organizations, CEO of the German sportbrand Bjørn Gulden said Thursday. Adidas cut ties with Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, in late October, following his antisemitic comments on social media and in interviews. As a result, the fate of 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) worth of the unsold Yeezys, a lucrative sneaker line launched with Ye, was unknown. Exact details of this plan — including how many shoes will be sold and the timeline of selling them — remain unknown. Gulden said the company will provide updates as they moves forward.
Total Retail’s Take: It appears Adidas has arrived at a positive resolution for what has been a months-long PR crisis. The German sportswear brand was forced to sever ties to Ye, which may have provided a short-term PR benefit, but ultimately cost the company hundreds of millions in lost sales. Adidas reported a loss of 600 million euros ($655 million) in sales for the last three months of 2022, contributing to a quarterly net loss of 513 million euros. Simply burning the Ye merchandise was one option, as was shipping it off to a landfill. However, neither of those were deemed acceptable due to sustainability and wastefulness concerns. Hopefully Adidas will be able to sell the Ye product, which prior to his antisemetic comments were some of the company’s best sellers, raising money for worthy charitable organizations in the process. Then Adidas will be able to move past this saga.
