Adidas’s CEO Bjorn announced on Friday that the shoe company will sell its remaining Yeezy stock and give away the proceeds to charity.
An estimated 1.2 billion euros worth of Yeezy stock lies in Adidas’s warehouses after the German shoe company severed its partnership with rapper Kanye West over his antisemitic comments in October, last year. The stock was withdrawn from sale after Kanye doubled down on his antisemitism and refused to apologize. Kanye publicly praised Hitler and Nazis and was photographed wearing T-shirts with Nazi logos.
The Yeezy line of Adidas shoes, which was a partnership between the shoe company and Kanye, was one of the biggest drivers of sales for the company and was raking in millions of dollars in sales every month.
“What we are trying to do now over time is to sell parts of this inventory and donate money to the organizations that are helping us and that were also hurt by Kanye’s statements,” he said.
Adidas is also being sued by shareholders with a class-action lawsuit over the fallout and losses incurred due to Kanye West’s “extreme behavior” and antisemitism.
The lawsuit claimed that the German shoe giant continued to ignore the erratic behavior of the rapper since 2018 and failed to warn its shareholders. It added that senior executives failed to pay attention to the destabilizing and dangerous verbal outburst and “extreme behavior” of the rapper.
