OPINION: Adidas ignored hate in pursuit of profit. 76 years later, it needed a second lesson
The sportswear giant only acted against Kanye west after its stock price plummeted by 15 percent in five days, says Daniel Sugarman
It starts, and ends, with shoes.
In the wake of the First World War, a young German man called Adolf – ‘Adi’ – Dassler repaired shoes, subsequently managing to develop his business into a full-scale factory specialising in athletic footwear. By the late 1920s, Dassler’s shoes were already being used in national and international sporting competitions.
In 1933, when the Nazis swept to power, Adolf Dassler didn’t hesitate to get behind Adolf Hitler. He joined the Nazis and volunteered as an adult leader for the Hitler Youth. When war broke out, the Dassler factories churned out shoes for the Wehrmacht. Later in the war, they were transformed into producing anti-tank weapons instead.
After the war, Dassler switched to supplying shoes to the American forces occupying West Germany. His business, named Adidas – a shortening of his own name – continued to thrive, becoming the world’s second largest sportswear manufacturer.
Fast forward to 2015. Adidas launches its collaboration with rapper Kanye West, a line of shoes known as ‘Yeezy’s’, after one of the musician’s nicknames. The shoe line is a massive hit. In 2019 alone, sales of Yeezy’s generated $1.3bn in revenue.
The company works hard to identify itself as one that fights back against bigotry. In 2016, it publicly introduces clauses into its contracts designed to protect LGBT sportspeople; prior to that, athletes who came out would often see sports sponsorships downgraded or cancelled.
In 2020, following the murder of George Floyd, the company pledges $120m to combat anti-black racism, saying, “It’s time to own up to our silence.” When a series of attacks target Asian Americans in 2021, Adidas was there, sharing the #StopAsianHate hashtag.
So on 7 October 2022, when Kanye West (now known as Ye), began making antisemitic comments, it was reasonable to expect some response from the company.
Nothing.
Over the next two weeks, Ye keeps making antisemitic comments, so much so that he’s banned from mainstream social media platforms. He gives numerous interviews where he launches into antisemitic rants.
From Adidas? Nothing.
People start to notice Adidas’s silence. They begin publicly to ask why, given its previous admirable stances, it has not acted. Ye addresses the issue on 20 October, stating publicly that he can say antisemitic things and Adidas can’t fire him.
Adidas doesn’t fire him.
Celebrities, with millions of social media followers, start picking up on this, asking variations on the same question. How can Adidas continue to ignore this? Is it having trouble hearing the roar of the crowd over the sound of its revenue stream?
In what can only be described as excruciating irony, a Jewish employee of Adidas reveals that the week of 20 October has been the company’s ‘global week of inclusion’.
“I am feeling anything but included,” she says. “I can no longer stay quiet on behalf of the brand that employs me. Not saying anything is saying everything.”
Neo-Nazis across America gleefully seize on Ye’s comments, flying supportive signs on bridges over highways. Other companies previously involved with Ye back away. But everybody knows his most lucrative deal, that made him a billionaire, is his partnership with Adidas. They’re waiting for a shoe company to stop dragging its feet. To step up. Nothing.
The leaders of all of the major Jewish organisations in North America repeatedly call for action. Nothing. Adidas’s stock price plummets by 15 percent in five days.
At which point the company finally acts, saying it’s cutting ties with Ye.
Too little, too late. There’s an old Yiddish proverb, which translates as follows: “Some people are like new shoes; the cheaper they are, the louder they squeak.”
Despite its previous admirable – and widely publicised – actions in confronting bigotry, when the firm faced a serious test, it failed.
Adi Dassler joined the Nazi Party months after it came to power, sensing that this was a smart business move. In 1946, he found himself attempting to explain to a de-Nazification panel that he had actually ended up losing more than 100,000 marks in the latter stages of the war.
He discovered that ignoring antisemitism in pursuit of profit doesn’t pay. 76 years later, his company appears to have needed a second lesson.
• Daniel is director of public affairs at the Board of Deputies.
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