Adidas bought its final remaining pair of Yeezy sneakers

By
Reuters

Revealed

March 5, 2025

Adidas bought its final remaining pair of Yeezy sneakers within the fourth quarter, the sportswear model mentioned Wednesday. This ended the method of liquidating inventory from the profitable shoe line developed with rapper Ye after their cut up in October 2022.

Adidas has been working to maneuver previous the Yeezy controversy since public anti-Semitic remarks by Ye, previously generally known as Kanye West, led to the termination of the extremely worthwhile partnership. The cut up impacted revenues and contributed to an annual loss for the corporate in 2023.

The U.S. market was hit the toughest, the place Yeezy sneakers had been significantly common. In its newest outcomes, reported Wednesday, Adidas mentioned North American gross sales fell 2% in 2024 “solely due to significantly lower Yeezy sales.”

The corporate started offloading its remaining Yeezy inventory in Could 2023, pledging to donate a part of the proceeds to organizations combating anti-Semitism, together with the Anti-Defamation League.

In complete, Adidas bought €650 million ($696 million) value of Yeezy sneakers in 2023, producing roughly €200 million in revenue. That marked a decline from the earlier 12 months when Yeezy gross sales introduced in €750 million in income, with an working revenue of €300 million.

CEO Bjørn Gulden introduced that Adidas has allotted €260 million from Yeezy income for charitable donations, accounting for about half of the entire working revenue from Yeezy inventory gross sales in 2023 and 2024.

Of this quantity, €200 million is held in a basis arrange by Adidas, whereas €60 million has already been distributed to charity organizations, Gulden mentioned.

($1 = €0.9410)($1 = €0.9337)