The CEO of sportswear giant Adidas, Bjørn Gulden, said Thursday that the company would sell millions of pairs of Yeezy-brand sneakers from its terminated partnership with rapper Kanye West and donate the proceeds to charity.
Adidas cut ties with West in October over antisemitic statements the rapper made. West sparked additional controversy around the same time when he attended a dinner hosted by former President Trump that included white supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, who has compared himself to Hitler.
The German company’s entire stock of unsold Yeezy merchandise in the wake of that dissolved relationship came to more than $1 billion.
Gulden said at Thursday’s annual shareholder’s meeting that Adidas had spent months weighing what to do with the unsold inventory.
“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,” Gulden said.
Adidas is still working out the details of when and how the selloff will happen.
