Adidas AG made about €350 million ($374 million) in sales from Yeezy shoes in the third quarter as the company whittles down its inventory of footwear from its canceled partnership with the rapper Ye.
Beyond Yeezy, the German company said currency-neutral sales increased 2% in the quarter for the rest of its offerings, driven by hot-selling classic sneakers like the Samba and Gazelle. That’s increasing brand heat around the world and creating higher interest from retailers for next year, according to a statement.
“Our current performance is not good enough, but we have said from the beginning that we need time to build this fantastic brand and company back to where it belongs: At the top as the best sports brand in the world,” Chief Executive Officer Bjorn Gulden said.
Investors are increasingly looking at Adidas’s progress on the non-Yeezy front as a sign of how successful Gulden’s turnaround efforts have been.
The new CEO has pledged to make the company much faster at jumping on trends and has scaled up production of the Terrace line of sneakers, which include the Sambas, Gazelles and Spezials. That’s created fresh momentum in Adidas’s Originals franchise, coinciding with a new ad campaign that launched in September for the retro products. Demand continues to outstrip supply for the Terrace shoes, the company said.
After selling €750 million of Yeezy products since May, Adidas is now sitting on about €300 million of the sneakers, which may need to be written off, it said.
The company cancelled the Yeezy collaboration last October following a string of antisemitic rhetoric from Ye, formerly known as Kanye West.
Adidas confirmed its updated guidance from October of an expected operating loss of about €100 million in 2023.
