Adidas has turned a big problem into a big opportunity after finally deciding to sell off its remaining inventory of sneakers under the Yeezy brand.
The company received orders worth more than 508 million euros ($565 million) for 4 million pairs of Yeezy shoes it had previously mothballed. The haul has been better than Adidas "most optimistic forecast," the Financial Times reported.
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Adidas began selling the first batch of more than $1 billion in Yeezy sneakers three weeks ago, about eight months after cutting ties with Ye -- the rapper formerly known as Kanye West -- after a series of antisemitic rants made him unemployable.
There were fears at the company that the Yeezy brand had been irreparably harmed by its namesake designer's erratic behavior, FT reported, but demand over the past few weeks has proven otherwise.
Earlier in May, Adidas announced that the loss of the Yeezy brand cost the company $441 million in sales and that it had $1.3 billion worth of unsold Yeezy stock that it wasn't sure what do with.
Under terms of their contract, Adidas will pay royalties to Ye from the proceeds. The German sportswear company has also said that a portion of the proceeds from the Yeezy sales would go to charity.
The FT reported that the company has discussed making donations of more than 8.5 million euros across five charities, but a decision on the final amount to be donated has not been made.
Adidas is currently in arbitration with West over a 2020 podcast interview he did stating that he spent $50 million in Yeezy marketing funds on his gospel choir tour, Sunday Service.
"The Yeezys, they were selling themselves," he said. "So instead of paying for ads, I invested it in the church," Kanye said in the interview.
Adidas says Ye "mishandled virtually all of the marketing funds," Bloomberg reported, claiming he diverted $75 million of the $100 million in marketing dollars to other things.
