Adidas: 'Yeezy' Gear Cash Goes to Charity

FILE: A pair of 'Nike Air Yeezy 1' prototype sneakers designed by Kanye West, are displayed at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre before going up for private sale at Sotheby's, in Hong Kong. Taken April 16, 2021.

FRANKFURT - Adidas will sell at least part of its huge inventory of Kanye West's Yeezy products and donate the proceeds, the German sportswear group's boss said Thursday.

The "Yeezy" merchandise has been in limbo since Adidas ended its partnership with controversial rapper Kanye West, now calling himself "Ye.".

The company's CEO Bjorn Guden told shareholders at an annual general meeting that "burning the goods is not the solution."

"What we will try to do over time is to sell part of these goods and to donate the money to organisations that help us and which also have been hurt by Kanye's statements," he said.

"When we will do that and how we will do that is not clear but we're working on it," he added.

Adidas halted its affiliation with West in October after he made a series of anti-Semitic outbursts.

As a result, the group ended production of the highly successful Yeezy line designed together with West.

Potentially not selling the apparel and shoes linked to West would lead to a revenue loss of 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion), the group said when it announced its 2022 full-year results earlier this week.