May 13, (THEWILL) – Adidas, giant fashion brand, has decided to sell its unsold Ye merchandise.
This was made known by the Chief Executive Officer, of the fashion brand, Bjorn Gulden, at an investors’ conference on Thursday.
According to him, Adidas is going to sell parts of the products and donate the money to the organisations that have helped them and was also hurt by Kanye’s attitude.
Adidas had previously said it expects to lose $1.3 billion in revenue this year because it’s unable to sell the designer’s Yeezy clothing and shoes. It had been under pressure from investors to determine what to do with the merchandise after Adidas terminated its partnership with Ye, formerly known as Kanye West.
“When we will do that and how we will do that is not clear yet, but we are working on those things,” Gulden said, according to a transcript provided to CNN from Adidas.
He added that the company has been trying to find solutions since the partnership was terminated last fall and decided against burning the leftover merchandise.
Adidas ended its almost decade-long partnership in October 2022 after Ye wore a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt in public.
The Anti-Defamation League categorized the phrase as a hate slogan used by White supremacist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan. Days later, Ye said he can say antisemitic sucks and Adidas cannot drop him during a podcast taping.
The partnership was a financial success for Adidas, so much so that it’s still financially hurting from its termination. Losing the highly profitable Yeezy line hit sales in the quarter by around 400 million euros ($441 million), Adidas said during the earning weeks.
