Not sure what it says about human nature but apparently sales of Kanye West's Yeezy shoe line for Adidas haven't been hurt much by the rapper's vile outbursts of antisemitic hate speech. If anything, the company severing ties with the rapper who now goes by Ye seems to have made the shoe even more in demand. Adidas reportedly sold 4 million remaining pairs of Yeezy sneakers for more than $565 million worth of orders during its May restocking.

The news comes from a Financial Times report, which added that the volume of sales exceeded Adidas' most “optimistic forecast.” Further, the company was apparently unable to fulfill all the orders, particularly for certain sizes and some of the more popular models.

It had previously been reported during the Adidas 2023 first quarter shareholder meeting that the brand lost $441 million in sales since the previous year, mostly due to fallout from Kanye West‘s antisemitic comments and the company's decision to sever ties with him as a result in October 2022.

But rather than go all in on disavowing hate speech by ditching the remaining stock of the shoes (which probably would have cost Adidas an additional $330 million), the company took the road less financially damning and decided instead to repurpose the rest of the shoes.

Their bet on sneaker-heads' disregard for the bigotry behind the shoe line's creator seems to have paid off for Adidas, which now finds itself saved from having to take a big write-off on its remaining stock. How neat for them!

However, for those who think it may be poor taste for a German brand to profit off of the shoe line of an outspoken antisemite, Adidas wants you to know that they see you… sort of. The company is currently negotiating just how much of the profit they plan on donating to charities centered on combating hate speech. Adidas had said in May it would donate sone of the proceeds from the sales to organizations fighting antisemitism and racism. “Some” eh? Care to elaborate?

The Financial Times article reports that discussions over exactly how much money will be donated to individual charities are still in process. Adidas has reportedly chosen five charities in the US and China as a first step. According to the Financial Times article, “Making donations of more than 8.5 million euros across the five charities has been discussed but no decision has been made.” The report cites people familiar with the matter.

Adidas claims they are willing to go much larger with their donation and pay a significant share of the profits from Yeezy inventory, per the report. On the other hand… there are also rumors of another wave of Yeezy releases hitting shelves soon online at Adidas and other retailers, including monolith sneaker chain Foot Locker. These outlets could begin selling popular Yeezy models like the Yeezy Boost 350 V2, the Yeezy Slides and others later this summer.

A rep for Adidas declined to comment to the Financial Times regarding the issue before the company's next quarterly results report due on August 3. From all appearances though, Adidas seems to want to have it both ways — bragging about how much they're going to eventually donate from Yeezy orders as they salivate over how much the shoe sales are making for them this summer, without worrying about the moral implications of furthering an association with Kanye West. If you ask me, it all sounds a little sole-less.