Sneaker fans from all over the world have been able to purchase a piece of dark shoe history since Wednesday morning. The sporting goods manufacturer sells the last product of its failed relationship with the US rapper and designer Ye, who was still called Kanye West at the beginning of the liaison in 2013, via the Adidas app. Shoes worth 1.2 billion euros have been lying in the warehouses of the group since the public divorce of the two parties in October 2022 because of the rapper’s anti-Semitic statements and are now – hopes Adidas-Björn Gulden – finally finding buyers.
Since 7 a.m., potential buyers can apply for the first two pairs of shoes, the Yeezy Boost 350 V2 in the colors black and undefined grey-red. At nine o’clock the usual men’s sizes of the model in black were already sold out. So far everything is normal.
Gulden, who recently described West as “perhaps the most creative person” in the sporting goods industry, has only recently been CEO of Adidas. He inherited the dispute over the Yeezy shoes from his predecessor Kasper Rorsted, who had to leave the company prematurely due to poor business prospects. According to his own statement, Gulden appreciates Ye, but he should still be happy when the topic is finally off the table.
This is what shoes look like that Adidas launched together with Kanye West.
(Photo: Seth Little/AP)
The solution, which Gulden claims to have worked out in dialogue with many employees in the company, sounds as simple as it makes sense. What do you do with $1.2 billion worth of shoes? You sell them. It just comes across as if you don’t want the bad PR that the rapper caused with his escapades in the future, but still want to make money with and on him. In order to limit this reputational risk, Adidas says it wants to donate a “significant portion” of the revenue from sold Yeezy products, for example to the Anti Defamation League (ADL) in the United States. The choice of organization is not accidental. The contract with the rapper was in October 2022 mainly because of anti-Semitic statements Yes been terminated.
Can shoes be anti-Semitic?
Many sneaker fans should be relatively indifferent to the controversy. The current sale is an interesting opportunity for collectors, as it is likely to be the last Yeezy collection from Adidas. They are shoes that tell a slightly anti-Semitic story, but they do tell a story. Which shoe can claim that?
More thoughtful sneaker fans, on the other hand, face a dilemma: Is it reasonable to wear shoes from a man’s collection who is repeatedly expressed anti-Semitism and denied the Holocaust has? And is it a bit more justifiable if the proceeds from the sale of shoes go to organizations that fight against anti-Semitism? In many cases, the answer may depend on how large the “significant share” of the proceeds from a shoe par actually is. It’s just stupid that Adidas doesn’t want to give any more precise information on this, even after repeated requests.
Equally unclear is the question of whether the US rapper will also benefit from the sale of the shoes. Adidas answers the SZ: “We will fulfill our contractual obligations and assert our claims in the same way, but we will not comment on this in detail.” A spokesman for Ye left an inquiry on the subject unanswered.
However, the contracts with Ye terminated by Adidas suggest that the rapper may well earn some money. West, a self-proclaimed Nike fan, only switched to Adidas in 2013because Nike refused to give him a part of the proceeds from their signature shoe sales in the same way as sports stars.
Perhaps the parties’ reluctance to comment on financial matters also has to do with the numerous court cases surrounding the divorce and custody issues in the Yeezy case. Just a few days ago, a US court rejected Yeezy funds controlled by Ye, continue to freeze. And Adidas, in turn, became a few weeks ago sued by shareholders for damages. The company has swept the problems with Ye, which have been known since 2018 at the latest, under the carpet and thus concealed possible risks from investors.
In view of these problems, it is understandable that the company wants to make the Ye sale as quiet as possible. How successful the sale actually was can be seen in the quarterly reports afterwards. Adidas boss Gulden had announced that the company expects a loss of 700 million euros if it does not get the Yeezy products sold.