Adidas seems to have found the solution to the embarrassing stock of Yeezy sneakers. The German sports equipment manufacturer will sell some of the shoes produced with the controversial rapper Kanye West, and donate the profits to NGOs, announced Thursday the boss of the group. After breaking off its collaboration with the rapper in October, notably pinned for anti-Semitic remarks, Adidas is looking for a solution for the thousands of shoes that have made the success of their collaboration for years.
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"In the last four months, we have been trying to find solutions to know what to do with it (stocks of sneakers). Burning the goods is not the solution," Bjorn Gulden said at the group's general meeting. "After talking to all the NGOs and many organizations that have been hurt by Kanye, all say no, this is not the solution" to destroy them, added the boss of Adidas. "What we're trying to do now is sell some of that merchandise and give money to the organizations that are helping us and that have also been harmed by Kanye's statements," he said. "We don't know yet when and how we're going to do it, but we're working on these issues," Gulden said.
The rapper will certainly receive a percentage
At the end of March, the value of the stock of Yeezy shoes remaining on the arms of the equipment manufacturer was estimated at 500 million euros, likely to generate revenues of 1.2 billion euros from sales. Logically, the rapper, who now calls himself Ye, should also receive a percentage of the sale.
Adidas started the year with a new quarterly loss, after a calamitous 2022 financial year, weighed down by the abrupt stop of Yeezy sneakers. The quarterly net loss of €39 million follows a positive balance of €482 million posted a year earlier, showing the impact of the termination of the collaboration with Kanye West.