Adidas Problems and their Relationship with Consumers

By: Abigail Brennick September 26th, 2023

Adidas, a German manufacturer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sporting goods, has faced multiple ethical issues (Lewis, 2023). Just like other big brands their ethical issues range from labor exploitation to environmental impact to internal corruption. Adidas over the years have had issues in these areas and more.

Companies, especially clothing brands, will partner with celebrities to get their brand out there. Adidas has had some controversial celebrity collabs which caused them to lose customers. The company had a long-running marketing deal with Tiger Woods, however, in 2009 Tiger Woods was involved in a public incident involving infidelity which not only damaged his reputation but Adidas’ by continuing to partner with him after (Godfrey, 2023). According to Marketing Week “Overall, more than a quarter (27%) of global consumers said they would consider stopping buying a product if a celebrity that endorses it is reported to be engaging in “personal misbehavior”, with 25% of those saying they have already stopped buying a product for this reason (O’Reilly, 2014).

Another ethical issue Adidas faced that the public did not like was the racism towards employees. Employees of Adidas spoke out against the company’s racial discrimination. The employees signed a statement calling for an investigation into the head of HR, Karen Parkin. It was stated that she was a significant contributor to the issue as she disregarded complaints and deemed them as “noise” (Godfrey, 2023). Another incident was when Julia Bond, Adidas Originals Assistant Apparel Director, voiced her frustrations with the organization not handling the internal racism. This led to customers protesting outside the headquarters demanding that things change within the company and a public apology (Torres, 2020). Consumers stopped purchasing from the brand due to the company never addressing the issues brought froward by employees.

Adidas, while being one of the leading sports apparel brands, knows that it can get away with some of these issues and still make revenue. As can be seen above, both times consumers and employees voiced their problems with the company little was done to reconcile. Their mission statement reads “WE ARE ON A MISSION TO EXPAND THE LIMITS OF HUMAN POSSIBILITIES, TO INCLUDE AND UNITE PEOPLE IN SPORT, AND TO CREATE A MORE SUSTAINABLE WORLD” (Our Purpose, n.d.). Comparing these issues to their mission statement, Adidas is not following its own morals. I think if the company made some internal changes to its values and employees, they could beat out their competitor, Nike. While there are other factors that stop them from being #1, they have a laundry list of ethical and legal issues that they have not taken accountability for.

Resources

Godfrey, O. (2023, August 15). The Dark Side Of Adidas: 8 Unethical Practices And Controversies. ClimateRealTalk. https://climaterealtalk.org/the-dark-side-of-adidas/

How ethical is Adidas AG? | Ethical Consumer. (2023, April 25). Ethical Consumer. https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/company-profile/adidas-ag

Lewis, R. (2023, September 21). Adidas. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Adidas-AG

Our Purpose. (n.d.). Adidas. Retrieved September 26, 2023, from https://www.adidas.com/us/purpose

O’Reilly, L. (2014, October 17). Tiger Woods is riskiest brand ambassador. Marketing Week. https://www.marketingweek.com/tiger-woods-is-riskiest-brand-ambassador/

Torres, L. (2020, June 12). More Detailed Incidents of Racism at adidas Emerge | Nice Kicks. Nice Kicks. https://www.nicekicks.com/adidas-internal-racism-protests/