‘TRANSITION YEAR’

Adidas Still Has No Idea What to Do With $1.3B Worth of Yeezy Merch

The company reported a net loss of $540 million in the fourth quarter, which comes after the termination of a lucrative deal with rapper Kanye West.

What does a company do with a stockpile of merchandise worth $1.3 billion, tainted, possibly irrecoverably, by their association with a rapper’s virulent antisemitism? That’s the question now facing executives at Adidas, which warned that it might be barreling towards its first annual loss in three decades after terminating its lucrative collaboration with Kanye West. The German sportswear company also reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $540 million on Wednesday, attributing some of the slump to higher supply costs and lower revenue in China. Chief financial officer Harm Ohlmeyer called it a “disappointing year” overall, while chief executive Bjorn Gulden looked ahead, declaring 2023 to be a “transition year.” It remains unclear what will happen to the Yeezy-shaped elephant in the room, with Gulden saying that the company is weighing selling off its remaining stock and donating the profits to do “something good.”