German apparel giant Adidas has had a hard time figuring out what to do with $1.3 billion worth of Yeezy shoes after parting ways with Kanye West. The musician designed the shoes himself, but just a few years later, his partnership with the company fell apart in late 2022 following a string of antisemitic comments.
After spending months trying to decide what to do with a big pile of extra shoes, including considering burning them, Adidas’ chief said the company is taking a more altruistic approach—donating them to non-governmental charity organizations.
“What we are trying to do over time is to sell parts of these goods and then donate to organizations that help us and that also have been hurt by Kanye’s statements,” CEO Björn Gulden told investors Thursday during Adidas’ annual shareholder meeting held in Fuerth, Germany. “Burning is not the solution.”
Gulden added that a number of NGOs that Adidas had spoken to aligned with the company’s thinking about not burning the shoes, but didn’t name any of them. He highlighted that there was no clear-cut timeline yet for when the Yeezy products would be sold.
“When we will do that and how we will do that is not clear yet, but we are working on those things,” Gulden said.
Adidas ended its partnership with West (who now calls himself “Ye”) in October, after the rapper made a series of public antisemitic remarks. The company faced massive financial pressure as a result, as Yeezy shoes were a lucrative part of Adidas’ business. In the last three months of 2022, the company’s net loss amounted to $540 million, attributed in part to the glut of unsold Yeezy shoes, and forecasted its first annual loss in 2023 linked to West’s shoe brand.
When contacted by Fortune for a comment, representatives for Adidas provided a part of the transcript where Gulden told shareholders about its Yeezy inventory on Thursday.
