It’s incredible how much power social media posts can have. When Ye decided to push send on his tweets and IG posts, it not only cost him his career, but it took down hundreds of other people’s jobs too.
Okabashi is the name of an Adidas manufacturing partner located in Buford, Georgia. You can safely say this family-owned business is the largest employer in the town. Or at least they were.
With Adidas out of the Yeezy business, that meant most of the 142 jobs that were taken by people employed to make Yeezy’s at this plant were let go.
Here’s part of the statement announcing the layoffs.
“As of right now, there are not enough orders to keep all employees busy with work. Very regrettably, Okabashi is announcing a layoff of 142 employees effective immediately.”
Adidas could not run further or faster away from Ye. The fact that many other people’s jobs were eliminated because Adidas got out of their relationship with Ye is collateral damage.
Here’s more from the statement
“Adidas clearly does not tolerate hate speech, and Okabashi also stands for these values. Unfortunately, this means Okabashi has to stop its current production for Adidas.”
This plant has been making Yeezy’s for over two years and will now look for a new brand to partner with on manufacturing.
As for what to do with unsold Yeezy’s that have been made in the plant, one thing common in the industry is rebranding by removing the logo or disguising it if possible.
The problem, in this case, is that Yeezy’s are unique. It would be hard to throw a Tom Ford logo on it and hope nobody notices.
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