A Century of Progress
In 1924 the original adidas father company, Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik ("Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory") was founded. The following 99 years were mostly glorious, but many lessons were learned the hard way. Moving forward, adidas will "Own the Reality" by engaging a rigorous truth and reconciliation process, dredging up and reflecting on past moral boners so as to evade future ethical booby traps. The company has identified a diabolical sextet of historic boners we must stomp out forever: Nazism, slavery, abuse, corruption, pollution and death.
In 1924 the original adidas father company, Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik ("Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory") was founded. The following 99 years were mostly glorious, but many lessons were learned the hard way. Moving forward, adidas will "Own the Reality" by engaging a rigorous truth and reconciliation process, dredging up and reflecting on past moral boners so as to evade future ethical booby traps. The company has identified a diabolical sextet of historic boners we must stomp out forever: Nazism, slavery, abuse, corruption, pollution and death.
THE DIABOLICAL SEXTET
NAZISM
In 1938, adidas supplied spikey shoes worn by Jesse Owens to his famous Olympic victory. This proved the company was un-racist (overcoming Nazi party affiliations and bad example by manufacture of superior Wermacht shoes for competitive advantage in blitzkreig). But despite how fast Adolf Dassler's most famous athlete ran in 1938, Owens could not help adidas fully escape the shackles of culpability for the regrettable following years, and Dassler was forced to endure the pillory of blog writers seventy-five years hence. Despite Owens' failure to remedy reputational damage of the original Adolf, superior technology allowed adidas to thrive after 1945, proving it could even sell to survivors of genocide. Many Jews today wear the three stripes proudly, and adidas even sponsored a Jew, Jason Rosen, who until 2012 was the guitar player for the world-famous rock-and-roll band Honor Society. Adidas most recently once again proved total "Entnazifizierung" by jettisoning Ye and his Yeezy brand after anti-semetic racist statements tarnished his shimmer. Some things are hard to see in the present, but in hindsight, the Nazi legacy of the adidas is a huge old boner adidas is committed to stomping as we OWN THE REALITY.
SLAVERY
In today's complex world, it is agreed that slavery is bad. But in today's complex world it is also very difficult to outsmart devious foreign suppliers who craftily locate their factory many borders away from Herzogenaurach, Germany. That is why adidas overlooked a regrettably large group of Uyghurs "interned" in Chinese factories that were part of our supply chain. When discovered, adidas quickly emancipated itself from the offending factories and found other less offensive situations that could nearly match the price. Just as in the unfortunate case of forced labor in Dassler factories during World War 2, a great sadness about this legacy remains and has resulted in our motto "never again, again." History aside, adidas AG maintains our commitment to emancipation of slaves everywhere, not just those who have secretly, against our knowledge, snuck into our supply chain, and we will pursue abolition as we OWN THE REALITY of slavery.
ABUSE
Abuse: the word can mean almost anything to anyone. In the case of labor relations, suppliers have fired workers for striking all over the world, have refused to pay at times, and have purged union leaders and troublemakers here and there, blacklisting them from future work. Abuse is no good, and adidas is committed to crushing it with every fist on the end of every arm everywhere we operate. Adidas is also the first to admit many past abuses. For example, some 30,000 workers in 8 of adidas’ Cambodia-based supplier factories are owed 11.7 million euros withheld from them during the Coronavirus pandemic. We haven't paid them yet, but as anyone knows the banks are only open certain hours, etcetera, and there are a lot of workers and they don't all have direct deposit. Sadly this one labor issue is just an appetizer in a buffet of many bigger abuses that are really too long to list on a simple website (but some are being kept track of by victims on sites like this one) but adidas will get to them as we OWN THE REALITY. Also on the loose subject of abuse is the somewhat weird case of our adidas collaboration with Balenciaga, in which our handbags appeared in adverts alongside legal documents about child abuse. Many people and journalists abused the reputation of adidas over the presence of our logo handbag in the Balenciaga child porn advertising scandal: we denounce all abuse, whether it is against adidas, our affiliates, or against children we did not have the chance to ask if they wanted to be included in a high-fashion photo shoot.
CORRUPTION
It was not adidas that provided the money for infamous FIFA payoffs that laundered the reputation of despotic governments and corrupt officials the world over, although it is undeniable that adidas CEO Horst (son of Adolf) Dassler founded the company that did (ISL) while also running adidas. It is important to note though that adidas did not spend so much bankrolling all the corruption before ISL was founded in 1982, so adidas cannot be held responsible for gussying up the military dictators of Argentina in 1978. Likewise, the policies that resulted in the recent selection of yet another human rights-abusing country for the World Cup were not ours. We spent euro 700 million supporting the FIFA event, but FIFA is FIFA and adidas is adidas. adidas remains steadfastly opposed to widespread death from despotic rule despite accidentally participating over the years. Today adidas OWNS THE REALITY by agreeing with a global consensus condemning genocidal despots.
POLLUTION
Earth is so ruined, and adidas helped. Just one example: “Stan Smith Forever" products are sadly not 50% recycled, and the "Forever" might as well refer to persistent plastics that just don't go away. It is a misleading boner exposed by rabid investigation. But does anyone really care? Recycling is like putting a band-aid on a severed head. The earth will bleed out before any difference is made. Furthermore, adidas still relies on a globalized supply chain and externalized production to shell companies in LDCs with low environmental standards. Yes, there is an elephant in the room. We can see the pachyderm in the mirror, and that is the first step. To change you have to see who you really are, take a slow spin around, and then put a totally new hat on that troubled beast.
DEATH
adidas OWNS THE REALITY of the largest land-based commercial wildlife slaughter in the world. Two million kangaroos are killed every year to get what is called K-leather, which is used in adidas shoes. Sadly, an additional 400,000 baby kangaroos also die when ripped from the pouches of their mothers, who are destined to become chic high-performance footwear. Although we own that reality too, we also blame evolution for giving the source of K-leather an absurd 30-day gestation period. The baby is born so tiny and feeble that it has to spend up to 18 months in the mother's pouch. It is hard to find, let alone kill, a female without a baby in the pouch due to this queer evolutionary reality. So although the onus for this collateral baby-killing arguably is upon god or nature, adidas does also admit it is terrible and is opposed all death, be it adult or baby.
NAZISM
In 1938, adidas supplied spikey shoes worn by Jesse Owens to his famous Olympic victory. This proved the company was un-racist (overcoming Nazi party affiliations and bad example by manufacture of superior Wermacht shoes for competitive advantage in blitzkreig). But despite how fast Adolf Dassler's most famous athlete ran in 1938, Owens could not help adidas fully escape the shackles of culpability for the regrettable following years, and Dassler was forced to endure the pillory of blog writers seventy-five years hence. Despite Owens' failure to remedy reputational damage of the original Adolf, superior technology allowed adidas to thrive after 1945, proving it could even sell to survivors of genocide. Many Jews today wear the three stripes proudly, and adidas even sponsored a Jew, Jason Rosen, who until 2012 was the guitar player for the world-famous rock-and-roll band Honor Society. Adidas most recently once again proved total "Entnazifizierung" by jettisoning Ye and his Yeezy brand after anti-semetic racist statements tarnished his shimmer. Some things are hard to see in the present, but in hindsight, the Nazi legacy of the adidas is a huge old boner adidas is committed to stomping as we OWN THE REALITY.
SLAVERY
In today's complex world, it is agreed that slavery is bad. But in today's complex world it is also very difficult to outsmart devious foreign suppliers who craftily locate their factory many borders away from Herzogenaurach, Germany. That is why adidas overlooked a regrettably large group of Uyghurs "interned" in Chinese factories that were part of our supply chain. When discovered, adidas quickly emancipated itself from the offending factories and found other less offensive situations that could nearly match the price. Just as in the unfortunate case of forced labor in Dassler factories during World War 2, a great sadness about this legacy remains and has resulted in our motto "never again, again." History aside, adidas AG maintains our commitment to emancipation of slaves everywhere, not just those who have secretly, against our knowledge, snuck into our supply chain, and we will pursue abolition as we OWN THE REALITY of slavery.
ABUSE
Abuse: the word can mean almost anything to anyone. In the case of labor relations, suppliers have fired workers for striking all over the world, have refused to pay at times, and have purged union leaders and troublemakers here and there, blacklisting them from future work. Abuse is no good, and adidas is committed to crushing it with every fist on the end of every arm everywhere we operate. Adidas is also the first to admit many past abuses. For example, some 30,000 workers in 8 of adidas’ Cambodia-based supplier factories are owed 11.7 million euros withheld from them during the Coronavirus pandemic. We haven't paid them yet, but as anyone knows the banks are only open certain hours, etcetera, and there are a lot of workers and they don't all have direct deposit. Sadly this one labor issue is just an appetizer in a buffet of many bigger abuses that are really too long to list on a simple website (but some are being kept track of by victims on sites like this one) but adidas will get to them as we OWN THE REALITY. Also on the loose subject of abuse is the somewhat weird case of our adidas collaboration with Balenciaga, in which our handbags appeared in adverts alongside legal documents about child abuse. Many people and journalists abused the reputation of adidas over the presence of our logo handbag in the Balenciaga child porn advertising scandal: we denounce all abuse, whether it is against adidas, our affiliates, or against children we did not have the chance to ask if they wanted to be included in a high-fashion photo shoot.
CORRUPTION
It was not adidas that provided the money for infamous FIFA payoffs that laundered the reputation of despotic governments and corrupt officials the world over, although it is undeniable that adidas CEO Horst (son of Adolf) Dassler founded the company that did (ISL) while also running adidas. It is important to note though that adidas did not spend so much bankrolling all the corruption before ISL was founded in 1982, so adidas cannot be held responsible for gussying up the military dictators of Argentina in 1978. Likewise, the policies that resulted in the recent selection of yet another human rights-abusing country for the World Cup were not ours. We spent euro 700 million supporting the FIFA event, but FIFA is FIFA and adidas is adidas. adidas remains steadfastly opposed to widespread death from despotic rule despite accidentally participating over the years. Today adidas OWNS THE REALITY by agreeing with a global consensus condemning genocidal despots.
POLLUTION
Earth is so ruined, and adidas helped. Just one example: “Stan Smith Forever" products are sadly not 50% recycled, and the "Forever" might as well refer to persistent plastics that just don't go away. It is a misleading boner exposed by rabid investigation. But does anyone really care? Recycling is like putting a band-aid on a severed head. The earth will bleed out before any difference is made. Furthermore, adidas still relies on a globalized supply chain and externalized production to shell companies in LDCs with low environmental standards. Yes, there is an elephant in the room. We can see the pachyderm in the mirror, and that is the first step. To change you have to see who you really are, take a slow spin around, and then put a totally new hat on that troubled beast.
DEATH
adidas OWNS THE REALITY of the largest land-based commercial wildlife slaughter in the world. Two million kangaroos are killed every year to get what is called K-leather, which is used in adidas shoes. Sadly, an additional 400,000 baby kangaroos also die when ripped from the pouches of their mothers, who are destined to become chic high-performance footwear. Although we own that reality too, we also blame evolution for giving the source of K-leather an absurd 30-day gestation period. The baby is born so tiny and feeble that it has to spend up to 18 months in the mother's pouch. It is hard to find, let alone kill, a female without a baby in the pouch due to this queer evolutionary reality. So although the onus for this collateral baby-killing arguably is upon god or nature, adidas does also admit it is terrible and is opposed all death, be it adult or baby.
