Remember those baseless rumors about Kanye West and Adidas getting back together again after the brand severed its relationship last year with the fashion mogul?
Well, it turns out those rumors may not have been so baseless after all.
Adidas isn’t working with West again, but the brand is reportedly going to begin selling his Yeezy sneakers again in the near future, according to The Washington Post.
During a company call on Thursday, newly minted CEO Bjorn Gulden reportedly told shareholders that the company decided to sell the Yeezy sneakers and donate proceeds to charity.
That, of course, means Kanye West himself will get a piece, too. And that’s exactly why this whole thing is messy.
Let’s dive into the details.
Wait, so what's been going on with the Yeezy sneakers?
Obviously, Adidas cut ties with West after the string of antisemitic and anti-Black statements he made toward the tail end of 2022.
The problem was that Adidas already had millions of pairs of Yeezy sneakers in production. By the time the brand chose to cut ties with West, it was already too late. Production couldn’t be halted.
So the company had to decide what it’d do with this Yeezy gear. It had a few options, but every option also featured a downside.
What were some of the options?
Some of the options featured:
- Destroying the Yeezys. Adidas could’ve just burned them instead of selling them, but that also poses a risk to the environment. So it’s reasonable that the brand didn’t take this option.
- Rebrand the Yeezys. This one was interesting. If Adidas removed Yeezy logos and still sold the products, it could avoid having to pay West his 15 percent royalty. But it’d also open the door up for litigation from West because of that.
- Donating the Yeezys. Adidas could’ve just given the sneakers away to a place in need the same way the NFL gives away gear for the team that loses the Super Bowl. But then it’d circulate the resale market and resellers would be able to make a profit off of this gear.
So the only option left was selling the Yeezys as is and just donating the profits. But that comes with it’s own problems, too.
So what's the problem with the option Adidas chose?
So Adidas is reportedly going to sell the shoes and donate a portion of the proceeds, according to The Post, which sounds great. Specifically, Adidas will donate to organizations that have been hurt by West, per Gulden.
“What we are trying to do over time is to sell parts of these goods and then donate to organizations that help us and that also have been hurt by Kanye’s statements,” Gulden added.
The problem with that is that Adidas will still owe Kanye West money from this.
West’s deal with Adidas earned him a 15 percent royalty from every Yeezy product sold, according to Forbes in 2019. And back in March, Gulden confirmed that if Adidas does indeed sell the remaining Yeezy inventory, the brand would have to pay West out a royalty. So that’s still happening.
Well that's not good
Nope. It’s not. Through all of this, Kanye West still manages to come out with a little something on the top.
And, look. At the end of the day, this is cold and calculated business. Adidas only made this move in the first place because West went entirely too far with his hate speech and nonsense. He became a liability for the brand, and it had to cut ties.
This is just Adidas trying to mitigate its losses, which is understandable. But it stinks. Because the dude who made this mess is still getting rewarded in the end, and the brand is the one actually doing the rewarding. None of it feels good.
This isn’t going to hurt Adidas financially. But it will definitely earn it some side-eyes from the public. As it should. The company is still essentially working with a person who has done nothing but spread hate. That’s not a good look.
It’ll put some money in Adidas’ pockets, though. And that’s what the company cares about the most.
