Shoes are offered on the market at an Adidas store on February 10, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois.
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Adidas intends to sell a part of its leftover Yeezy inventory and donate the cash to charities that were harmed by Ye’s anti-Semitic comments, the corporate’s chief executive said Thursday.
The CEO, Bjorn Gulden, didn’t name the charities he’s considering.
“Once we do this and the way we do this, stays to be seen but we’re working on that” he said.
At one point, the corporate considered burning the merchandise.
“Burning the shoes can’t be the answer,” Gulden said. He says he got here to that conclusion after talking with various NGOs and the educational of the environmental damage.
Appearing at his first annual meeting for the German company, Gulden said it was the precise thing for Adidas to terminate the contract of their biggest star, Ye, the artist formerly generally known as Kanye West.
“He’s a difficult person, but he’s arguably essentially the most creative person in our industry,” he said. “He created a model with Adidas that was wanted world wide,” he added.
Gulden took the helm of Adidas on Jan. 1, following CEO Kasper Rorsted’s departure. He previously worked at rival Puma.
What to do with the tarnished sneaker brand stoked debate. Gulden has said he has received greater than 500 offers for Yeezy leftovers.
Adidas’ most up-to-date earnings beat expectations but were weighed down by Yeezy inventory piling up. “The decline in lifestyle and the lack of Yeezy are after all hurting us,” Gulden said during his company’s May 5 earnings call.
The corporate parted ways with Ye in October following months of bizarre behavior and antisemitic comments from the hip hop artist.
The split left Adidas with inventory levels of $500 million value of sneakers, with selling value of over $1 billion, in line with the corporate.
