Kanye West is in the news again, indirectly, and it’s actually for a good cause in a way.
Adidas is still in the process of offloading merchandise from their Yeezy shoe line, and they just
Adidas had $1.3 billion dollars worth of Yeezy sneakers in their warehouses following the end of their partnership with Kanye West in October 2022 after he spouted off saying antisemitic comments in interviews and on social media. That led to brands and endorsement deals being canceled around the world, and it left Adidas with a lot of unsold inventory. Originally the athletic brand considered destroying the merchandise and writing off the assets as a loss on their balance sheet, but then they had another idea.
What if they sold the product over the next few years, and donate the proceeds to charity?
On Wednesday, March 13, 2024 Adidas announced they were donating $150 million dollars to groups that are fighting antisemitism and other forms of hate.
I love this, because they flipped the script on Kanye West’s hate speech by funding charities that are fighting hate speech. It’s so poetic!
By selling down their inventory of Yeezy sneakers in batches of releases, Adidas has been able to prevent a price collapse in the shoe’s value, and continue to give consumers that they’re looking for while helping to combat hate speech all at the same time.
This is a masterclass in crisis PR, and a lesson I wish Kanye West was well enough mentally to learn from.
Yeezy shoe sales lead Adidas to $150 million in donations to anti-hate groups