Ye’s anti-Semitic rants last year could end up costing Adidas a whopping $527.5 million U.S., the company said this week.
CEO Bjorn Gulden told analysts Adidas has to decide how to get rid of $1.3 billion U.S. in unsold Yeezy sneakers.
“Depending on who you speak to, people will say you cannot destroy [the merchandise] because it’s a sustainability issue, right? So, please don’t destroy,” he said, according to reports. “And then, those who are like, ‘Please don’t sell because you have a reputation issue.’
“It’s a very complicated issue.”
Gulden said there are consultations with “people that have been hurt by this situation” to find a solution.
He said Adidas will take a blow to its reputation if it attempts to rebrand and sell the Yeezy stock. It could also sell the inventory at cost so there is no profit, sell it at a small margin and donate the profits to charity, or donate the sneakers.
Last October, the German company ended what it had previously described as “one of the most successful collaborations in our industry’s history” after the rapper formerly known as Kanye West made a number of anti-Semitic remarks and then taunted Adidas.
“The thing about it being Adidas is like, I can literally say anti-Semitic s**t and they can’t drop me,” said Ye during an appearance on Drink Champs. (Some people speculated that Ye was referencing the fact that Adidas was founded by brothers Adolf Dassler and Rudolf Dassler, who became members of the Nazi Party.)
Adidas pulled the plug and said in a statement that Ye’s comments were “unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company's values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.”