Adidas plans to keep 'carefully' moving more Yeezy stock after making $437 million from its first post-Kanye West sale
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- Adidas said it made $437 million from the first sales of Yeezy shoes since cutting ties with Kayne West.
- Some of the proceeds will be donated to groups fighting antisemitism, the company said.
- A second batch of Yeezy items dropped Wednesday as Adidas keeps trying to shift leftover stock.
Adidas made close to 400 million euros ($437 million) from its first batch of Yeezy sneaker sales since cutting ties with Kanye West last year.
The company kicked off another round of Yeezy sales Wednesday, including the popular sneakers Yeezy Boost 250 V2, 500, 700 and the Yeezy Slide and Foam Rnr lines.
It comes after the first wave helped Adidas post an operating profit of 176 million euros ($194 million) in its second quarter, which it said was "slightly better" than expected.
The first sale saw the company offload up to a quarter of its Yeezy backlog, worth about $530 million, after it severed ties with the designer, per The Associated Press.
The German sportswear company ended its partnership with the rapper, now known as Ye, in October after he posted antisemitic tweets and made offensive comments on Fox News.
After initially planning to burn its remaining Yeezy stock, Adidas instead decided to sell the sneakers and use the profits to make "substantial donations'" to causes combatting antisemitism and other forms of racism.
CEO Bjørn Gulden said Thursday these groups included the Anti-Defamation League, the Philonise & Keeta Floyd Institute for Social Change, and Robert Kraft's Foundation to Combat Antisemitism.
Adidas did not say what proportion of the sales would be donated to charity, nor whether Ye would receive any of the proceeds.
Gulden said in the financial statement that this solution was "much better than destroying and writing off the inventory" – a move that was welcomed by former Yeezy chief operating officer Udi Avshalom.
The sales continue to ease financial pressure on Adidas. Demand for the remaining Yeezy stock has helped to bring the company's expected annual loss down from $764 million forecast in March to $491 million.
In line with Gulden's promise that the company will "continue to carefully sell off more of the existing Yeezy inventory", a second batch of Yeezy sneakers went on sale this week. More drops are expected throughout August.
Adidas did not immediately respond to a request for further comment from Insider.