Who Owns Adidas?

Adidas has committed to using only recycled polyester in its products by 2024, a goal it reported achieving for a significant majority of its core apparel and footwear lines. The company has partnered with Parley for the Oceans since 2015 to incorporate ocean plastic waste into shoe uppers and apparel; as of 2024, over 40 million pairs of Parley product had been sold since the partnership launched.

The company is a member of the Better Cotton Initiative and has committed to sourcing 100% of its cotton as sustainably certified (Better Cotton, organic, or recycled) by 2025. Adidas does not use real animal fur in its products and has progressively reduced the use of exotic animal materials. The company has not yet received vegan certification across its full product range, as leather continues to be used in some footwear lines; recycled-materials is the only verified sustainability flag applicable.

Adidas publishes an annual sustainability report aligned with GRI standards. Third-party auditing of its supply chain is conducted through the Fair Labor Association (FLA), of which Adidas has been a member since 2000.

• Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI): Adidas has been included in the DJSI World and DJSI Europe indices in multiple years, recognized for corporate sustainability performance.
• Forbes Global 2000: Consistently ranked among the world's largest public companies.
• Interbrand Best Global Brands: Adidas has appeared consistently in Interbrand's top 50 global brands list.
• Fashion for Good Member: Recognized for innovation in sustainable materials, particularly the Parley Ocean Plastic program.
• FLA Accreditation: Fair Labor Association accreditation for social compliance programs covering supply chain labor standards.
• TIME100 Most Influential Companies (2023): Adidas recognized for sustainable product innovation.

Yeezy Partnership Termination (October 2022): Adidas ended its Yeezy collaboration with Kanye West (Ye) in October 2022 following a series of public statements by West that Adidas characterized as antisemitic and hateful, including a tweet expressing admiration for Adolf Hitler. The termination was among the largest brand partnership dissolutions in history. Adidas had approximately €1.2 billion in Yeezy inventory at the time of termination. The company subsequently sold portions of the inventory through controlled "Yeezy Day" releases and donated portions of proceeds to anti-discrimination organizations. The financial impact contributed to Adidas recording an operating loss for 2023. Adidas completed most Yeezy inventory liquidation by end of 2024. No legal claims between Adidas and West were resolved publicly as of May 2025.

Xinjiang Cotton Sourcing (2021): Adidas, along with Nike, H&M, and Burberry, was targeted in Chinese state-media and social media campaigns in March 2021 after the companies had previously signed Better Cotton Initiative statements expressing concern about reports of forced labor in Xinjiang cotton production. Chinese consumers and celebrities boycotted Adidas and other affected brands. Adidas's Greater China revenues declined significantly from 2021 to 2023. Adidas restated that it does not knowingly source cotton from Xinjiang while maintaining its sustainable sourcing commitments.

Supply Chain Labor Audits: Adidas's supply chain in Southeast Asia has been the subject of labor rights investigations by advocacy groups including the Worker Rights Consortium and Clean Clothes Campaign, which have documented wage theft, excessive overtime, and suppression of worker organizing at contracted factories. Adidas responds to these findings through its FLA compliance process and supplier corrective action requirements. Structural challenges remain given the competitive pressure on supplier pricing that makes living-wage payment difficult to enforce at scale.

Three-Stripe Trademark Litigation: Adidas has pursued extensive global litigation to protect its three-stripe trademark, filing hundreds of cases annually against other brands using parallel stripes on footwear or apparel. Courts in multiple jurisdictions have ruled both for and against Adidas in these cases. In September 2023, the European Union General Court ruled that Adidas's EU three-stripe trademark was invalid due to insufficient distinctiveness, a setback in the company's European trademark enforcement efforts. Adidas appealed the decision.

Kasper Rorsted CEO Exit (2022): Adidas announced the early departure of CEO Kasper Rorsted in August 2022, before the formal announcement of the Yeezy termination. The transition was reported as prompted by strategic disagreements and poor performance in key markets. Rorsted left in November 2022; Bjorn Gulden was appointed successor in December 2022.