Adidas is still grappling with the fallout from their high-profile breakup with disgraced rapper Ye (formerly known as Kanye West). The German sportswear company has $1.3 billion dollars worth of Ye’s Yeezy shoes to get rid of. This of course comes on top of the huge financial hit they took when initially nixing their deal to sell Ye’s shoe line and pay him royalties following the rapper’s anti-semitic posts on social media.
New Adidas CEO Bjorn Gulden has pointed to “many variables” about what to do with the remaining shoes stacked in warehouses. Destroying them could lead to sustainability issues, he said. Some companies, though, have offered Adidas recycling solutions. Gulden also ruled out restitching the shoes to hide the Yeezy logo or sending them to places that need clothing like Syria or Turkey, since doing the latter would rebound its market value and demand.
Gulden says that should Adidas go ahead with selling the shoes in some form, “I can promise you that the people that have been hurt by this will also get something good out of it and get donations and proceeds in different ways.” Aside from Ye’s anti-semitic rhetoric, reports have also emerged that he created a toxic work environment within the company.
The initial breakup with Ye cost Adidas over $600 million dollars, with even further losses predicted in 2023 if they don’t do something about the shoes quickly. Gulden called 2023 “a transition year” for Adidas, stating “we can then start to build a profitable business again in 2024.”
