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Adidas bet big on a volatile artist, and lost

Adidas bet big on a volatile artist, and lost

The German shoemaker’s alliance with rapper Kanye West was a specular and fascinating failure of corporate strategy.

Kim Bhasin and Tim Loh

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Millions of pairs of unsold Yeezys are sitting in purgatory, stacked in warehouses from the US to China. Sneakers – some looking like cozy turtleneck sweaters for your feet, others like they’ve grown teeth on their soles or solidified into pillowy clouds – that once would’ve sold out in limited-edition drops, often flipped for much more on StockX and Goat, now await their fate seven months after one of the biggest corporate meltdowns in history. Their owner, Adidas, couldn’t decide what to do with all the tarnished merchandise created by the man who was, until recently, its most prominent business partner: Kanye West, who now goes by Ye. The total value of these sneakers: about $US1.3 billion ($2 billion).

The end of Ye’s collaboration with Adidas has been costly for both parties. AP

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Bloomberg Businessweek

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Original URL: https://www.afr.com/companies/sport/adidas-bet-big-on-a-volatile-artist-and-lost-20230605-p5de0p