London: Adidas will sell more of its stocked-up Yeezy products in August, it said on Friday, and reiterated a pledge to donate part of the proceeds to groups fighting discrimination and hate.
Adidas had stopped selling Yeezy shoes and abandoned its collaboration with rapper Ye after the artist, formerly known as Kanye West, made a series of antisemitic comments.
The fate of a large stock of unsold shoes from the once highly profitable Yeezy line has weighed on the company’s sales, but the prospect of offloading them has narrowed its projected losses for the year.
“Today Adidas announced a further release of YEEZY inventory with a range of existing products being available in phases throughout the month of August across the world,” the company said in a statement.
“As previously communicated, Adidas will donate a significant amount to selected organisations working to combat discrimination and hate, including racism and antisemitism.” Adidas said it was supporting the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Philonise & Keeta Floyd Institute for Social Change, and also announced its support for Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism (FCAS).
The company did not specify how much it would donate.
“The range available will include some of the most popular existing designs including the YEEZY BOOST 350 V2, 500 and 700 as well as the YEEZY SLIDE and FOAM RNR,” it said.
Unexpectedly strong sales of Yeezy shoes left over from the Ye collaboration will likely help reduce the company’s operating losses this year.
Adidas this week said the potential impact of a Yeezy stock write-off was now 400 million euros, down from 500 million euros expected previously.
The company did not say exactly how much of its estimated 1.2 billion euros in Yeezy stock it had sold but analysts estimate that around 15 per cent of it has been liquidated.
