Deep Dives Into Bad Guys: Adidas

Culturally iconic, environmentally a bum

various iterations of Adidas past and present - from tennis and football (hey, David!) to royalty and supermodels

My godmother used to give me Adidas tracksuits for Christmases and birthdays each year. I adored her & my mom’s athletic fashion taste and thought these tracksuits made me just like them: the epitome of cool. Lanky and bookish, I wore them like a suit of armor on the playground, a swag boost to keep up with all the fast boys during flag football or soccer. 

I am the generation of sport tech innovations, experiencing firsthand the shift to progressively more breathable uniforms with each upgrade for my club soccer team. In college, while my volleyball team was decked out in Nike, Adidas was beginning to take hold in the sport and I found myself jealous of Division I programs that had their gear. Adidas’ popularity ebbed with each sport I played, though its presence in street style consistently kept it on the map.

Living in London amidst the revival of 90s ‘blokecore’ has attached further cultural context behind the brand. Queueing outside the cafe on a Saturday morning puts you among legions of Sambas, Spezials, and Gazelles, all waiting for oat flat whites and sourdough sarnies. You see colorways you can only find in the IYKYK hypebeast corners of social media, paired with everything from double denim and rolled beanies to hair ribbons and maxi skirts. 

Adidas has in many ways, alongside a few other major brands, created an expansive world for sportswear to reside in fashion, one of both status and accessibility. But you already know by the title that I’m here to talk about a different type of impact.

Much like the gaslighting ex who was only nice when other people were around, the brand enjoys its celebrity campaigns, luxury collabs (Gucci is becoming tired, Wales Bonner is all the rage), and external-facing advertising inclusivity, all the while brewing environmental chaos. 

In a recently revised rating by Good on You, Adidas was demoted from ‘It’s a Start’ to ‘Not Good Enough’. Despite a robust sustainability strategy plan, containing benchmarks for GHG emissions and managing high risk human rights issues in their supply chain, the multinational corporation is ‘not taking adequate steps to ensure payment of a living wage for its workers’. Adidas has also been linked to recent human rights violations in its supply chain, including ongoing cases of wage theft in Cambodia, owing factory workers who live in a cycle of poverty MILLIONS of dollars. 

Campaign via Labour Behind the Label

And while the brand claims to be a pioneer in eco fashion, using lower impact* or recyclable materials, there have also been critiques on their follow-through. Whether it’s biodiversity protection, GHG emissions or eliminating hazardous chemicals, it seems as though Adidas needs to have a little more accountability and do a little less greenwashing. It’s sounding a lot like politics are taking priority over preservation (and restoration!), if I’m being honest. 

*I’m confused. Does lower impact mean leather, down, and exotic animal skin, which Adidas still uses??

Setting goals to reduce a portion of your value chain’s emissions + focusing on offsetting or achieving carbon neutrality is a pretty weak, un-ambitious strategy for a brand claiming to be on the edge of eco-conscious innovation. Even for me, who likes to think she knows a thing or two about seeing through greenwashing, it took me a second to realize the game that was being played at my expense. Fooling us into believing a massive, global fast fashion chain that overproduces and generates waste like nobody’s biz — I suppose it’s their biz — is championing the eco movement is deceptive and cruel. They clean our oceans so there’s more room for their trash.

via @cleanclothescampaign

The big takeaway here? Reporting is vastly different from making the ongoing effort to change. When it comes to getting a true read on a brand’s transparency and reporting, the finer details matter. Policies should be in place with independent auditors and certifications to have unbiased evidence of their actions. Setting benchmarks is great but not enough on its own; questions remain about how much progress has been made, what has been learned, or if it lacks a sense of urgency.

Adidas is one of the most massive and profitable MNCs. It’s crucial that they track what’s going on! They can’t turn a blind eye to the thousands of people that they employ through third parties in their supply chain. They can’t achieve what they say they will and continue to churn out garments at this scale. Adidas must be held to standards within both their direct and indirect control, things where blame is often thrust on each other, with no bearer of responsibility. 

---

I have plenty of Adidas shorts, jackets, and shoes that I’ve bought over the years that I will still wear. I will still be tempted by the latest Wales Bonner drop, and be inspired by their montages of Olympic track stars and soccer greats. But the gravity of Adidas’ impact on the earth has to be held in the same hand, to make two things true simultaneously. And if they aren’t making changes, they won’t get my change. Periodt.

If you’d like to see more ‘deep dives’ on brands, let me know in the comments!

Hope you’re all staying warm,

Ryann xx