October 25th 2023.
Kanye West still faces backlash from his controversial 2022 interview on Drink Champs, where he made antisemitic statements. This ultimately led to Adidas severing its long-standing and profitable partnership with the music producer.
However, months later, Adidas was forced to sell the remaining supply of Yeezys, which had been discontinued, in order to boost its sagging bottom line.
According to Complex, an internal memo from Adidas revealed that the company decided to postpone the November release of Yeezys due to the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel. The memo stated, “As a brand we will not do a new drop for the remainder of the year both for our internal e-com and retail as well as wholesale. We will not be shipping out any new stock, this direction was given at the board level.”
Adidas had expected to release “Bone,” “Onyx,” and “Zebra” colorways of the Adidas Yeezy Boost 350 V2, as well as Yeezy 500 and 700 models. Business Insider reported that the sports brand was able to make orders worth 508 million euros, after it reversed its decision to destroy the remaining supply. This was a major change of direction for Adidas, who had initially planned to write the Yeezy product off for $500 million.
It all began when Kanye West dared Adidas to act, saying “I can say anti-Semitic things, and Adidas can’t drop me. Now what?”, which led to Adidas calling his bluff and terminating the contract.
Adidas recently made a move to donate Yeezy sales to anti-hate organizations. This is a positive step in the right direction and is a great way for the company to show its commitment to combatting hate speech.
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