The German sporting goods manufacturer Adidas will sell part of its inventory of Yeezy sneakers, which it produced with controversial rapper Kanye West, and donate the profits to NGOs, the CEO announced on Thursday.
Adidas had broken off the collaboration with the rapper in October, who was accused in particular of anti-Semitic remarks, and is looking for a solution for the thousands of shoes that have made their collaboration successful for years.
“For four months we’ve been trying to figure out what to do with it (sneaker stocks). “Burning the goods is not a solution,” explained Björn Gulden during the group’s general meeting.
“After talking to all NGOs and many organizations affected by Kanye, everyone said, ‘No, that’s not the solution’ to destroy them, the Adidas boss added.
“What we’re trying to do right now is sell some of this merchandise and donate money to organizations that help us that Kanye’s statements have also hurt,” he said in the announcement.
“We do not yet know when and how we will do this, but we are working on these issues,” said Gulden.
Logically, the rapper, who now calls himself Ye, should also get a share of the sale.
At the end of March, the value of the Yeezy shoes still on the outfitter’s arms was estimated at 500 million euros, which would likely generate a turnover of 1.2 billion euros when sold.
Adidas started the year with another quarterly loss, after a disastrous 2022 fiscal year that was impacted by the abrupt discontinuation of Yeezy sneakers.
The group’s quarterly net loss of 39 million euros follows a positive balance of 482 million in the previous year, showing the impact of the end of the collaboration with Kanye West.