Sports brand Adidas still feels the break with artist Kanye West in its results. After anti-Semitic statements by the rapper and designer, who nowadays calls himself Ye, the German brand broke off the very lucrative collaboration with his clothing brand Yeezy. That cost Adidas hundreds of millions of euros in lost revenue in the first quarter.
Not just the broken cooperation with Ye, but also the still very large stocks at stores put pressure on sales of new shirts, sports shoes and tracksuits from the brand. After the corona crisis, problems arose worldwide with the supply of all kinds of goods, so that retailers built up larger stocks to be on the safe side.
Clothing brands such as Adidas are therefore faced with a problem, because these items must first be sold before retailers place new orders. As a result, the mountain of unsold clothing at Adidas itself is also a quarter larger than a year ago. In addition, all the scandals surrounding Ye have made the clothing of his line with Adidas unsaleable, leaving the company with half a billion euros worth of Yeezy stuff. It is still not clear what to do with it.
Despite all the setbacks, sales remained unchanged compared to the first quarter of 2022, if the effect of exchange rates is excluded. But in North America, sales fell by 20 percent, because the Yeezy line sold particularly well in the United States. Turnover also fell in China, but retailers sold more Adidas clothing after the strict corona lockdowns were lifted. Below the line, a loss of 24 million euros remained, while a year earlier that was a profit of 310 million euros.
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