Talk about a well-thought-out strategy.
Billionaire Patriots owner Robert Kraft aided in the creation of a nonprofit vehicle for Adidas to offload $1.3 billion in Yeezy gear designed by disgraced anti-Semitic musician Kanye West.
Adidas has announced that a considerable amount of the proceeds from the remaining Yeezy goods would be donated to five charities.
According to reports, they will include Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, the Anti-Defamation League, and the Philonise and Keeta Floyd Institute for Social Change.
The amount of the donation has not been disclosed, but a source informed Page Six that it will be a “substantial financial seven-figure payment.” The company has also stated that it does not intend to make a profit from the sales.
Adidas launched their first batch of leftover Yeezy merchandise in June, and according to sources, the sale generated $565 million in online purchases.
A second batch of the sneakers is now available.
Shoes sold directly through Adidas in North America will have blue square pins as part of the new wave, a symbol established by Kraft’s foundation as part of a $25 million awareness-building campaign. According to sources, the pins and a special card will be included with a million pairs of the Yeezy sneakers.
Blue squares have been seen on celebrities such as Tom Brady, Mike Tyson, Jon Bon Jovi, and Dave Matthews.
Adidas terminated West’s contract as a result of his anti-Semitic outbursts late last year.
The New England Patriots 2023 Team Prediction
Speaking of the Patriots, let’s take a quick look at how they are expected to finish this season.
The Patriots are not all that exciting right now. In fact, It’s a boring franchise. They’re not good enough to compete for a title in an AFC East that suddenly got a lot better. Their roster doesn’t have enough blue-chip players. But Belichick is too good to let the Patriots become one of those AFC East teams that was at the bottom of the barrel during the Patriots’ dynasty. They’ll be a tough out all season, especially with a strong defense, but nowhere near Super Bowl contention. In three years they went from the epicenter of the NFL to being one of the league’s most unremarkable teams.
If there is hope for the Patriots to be something more than middle of the road, it’s a change on offense. It’s rare the entire world is right and Belichick is wrong on a football matter, but Belichick seemed to be the only sane football observer who thought his plan at offensive coordinator last season was a good idea. Having failed head coaches Matt Patricia (whose experience was on defense) and Joe Judge run the offense went as poorly as everyone expected. The Patriots offense was mostly a mess. This offseason the team hired Bill O’Brien, who you probably don’t want orchestrating a DeAndre Hopkins trade but has a good track record as an offensive coordinator.
“Bill’s familiar with what he’s doing, so it feels good,” Patriots receiver Kendrick Bourne said of O’Brien, via CBS Boston. “You can tell he knows what he’s doing in all areas of the offense — receiver, lineman, running back. He knows offense a lot, so it feels good.”
The unspoken part of Bourne’s comment is probably that last year’s offensive staff wasn’t familiar with what it was doing, but everyone knew that already. Maybe the coaching upgrade will fix a lot of what was wrong with the Patriots.
The Patriots are fairly long shots to win the Super Bowl. Online sportsbooks have them at 50/1 odds currently. That places them squarely in the bottom half of the league.
