Adidas Responds to New Racism Allegations

Adidas has another legal headache on its hands — a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination.

The lawsuit was filed last September by April Burton against Adidas America Inc. in a state trial court in Multnomah Courty, Ore., while she still employed by the company. According to the state court docket sheet, the case remains open. Burton has since filed an amended complaint. She is suing the athletic brand for $6.2 million. Burton was let go from her job this past February.

Burton claimed that a senior colleague nicknamed her “ape” while working on a now defunct collaboration with Beyoncé, and that her April 2022 complaint to human resources department at Adidas went unresolved. According to a report in the Financial Times, she also claimed that then Adidas chief sales officer Roland Auschel made inappropriate comments about Beyoncé that were sexist. In a response to the Financial Times, Auschel denied making the alleged comments.

Burton, who went on to formally complain about Auschel’s alleged behavior, said she met with senior Adidas leaders, including CEO Bjørn Gulden, in March 2023 regarding the incident. She also claimed that she was in line for a potential promotion after meeting with Gulden, but instead was demoted before getting fired in February.

Burton’s law firm did not respond to a query about the legal action by press time. A spokeswoman for Adidas said: “We take allegations of this nature seriously and have conducted a comprehensive investigation, which found the claims to be unfounded. The lawsuit lacks any merit, and we are prepared to defend ourselves vigorously against these baseless accusations. As this is pending litigation, we will not be commenting further at this time.”

The German sports apparel and footwear firm has been the subject of alleged racial discrimination before, going back to at least November 2018 at its North American headquarters in Portland, Ore.

Footwear News reported that Adidas minority employees sought new leadership to diversify representation because of racial and ethnic tensions alleged at the brand. In the FN story, those allegations include the failure to “promote and treat people of color fairly” and the cultivation of a “high school ‘clique’ environment.”

Adidas at the time issued a statement that said it is “committed to maintaining a respectful and inclusive environment for all Adidas employees around the world. It’s crucial that we have and support a diverse workforce that represents a variety of ideas, strengths, interests and cultural backgrounds. We value all of our employees, are stronger because of their unique perspectives and are dedicated to achieving greater diversity at every level of the company.”

A year after the initial accusations against Adidas, a story in FN noted that similar accusations against the brand surfaced from members of the LGBTQ community. In the same year, 2020, employees formed a 13-member coalition to fight for change to address purported racial disparities. The coalition subsequently grew to over 150 employees from both its North American campus and its global headquarters in Germany. That resulted in a several new D&I initiatives at Adidas.

At a time when DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) concerns were at the forefront of the workforce environment, Adidas wasn’t the only brand scrutinized for its alleged internal practices. Nike Inc. and Under Armour also came under fire for not doing enough for its diversity makeup. Many companies—Nike, Adidas, Foot Locker, Fila, Kith, Puma, Toms and more—took up the mantle to fight to improve racial equality, including making donations to organizations that fight racial injustice.

But in the case of Adidas, the firm has continued to get dragged into DEI controversies. The brand in October 2022 ended its lucrative, nine-year Yeezy partnership with Kanye West. The decision was made following a series of antisemitic comments by West over the course of several weeks. Adidas said in a statement to FN that it “does not tolerate antisemitism or any other sort of hate speech,” adding that West’s comments were “unacceptable, hateful and dangerous” and that they violated the company’s DEI values. Seven months later, Adidas and West reached a settlement whereby the brand could sell the remaining Yeezy footwear products, with the proceeds donated to organizations that work to combat discrimination, racism and antisemitism.

And last year, the brand appeared insensitive when it featured Palestinian-American model Bella Hadid for a marketing campaign meant to honor the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, an event tied to the 11 Israeli athletes murdered in a terrorist attack from the Palestinian terrorist group Black September. Hadid and members of her family have been criticized by some people online for allegedly spreading anti-semitic rhetoric and false information on social media since the start of the Hamas-Israel war.

Adidas said in a statement then that it was revising portions of the campaign, apologizing for any distress or upset caused, and noting that the connections made to the tragic historical events were “completely unintentional.”

Since U.S. President Donald J. Trump took office on Jan. 20, he has issued a number of executive orders that walk back on his predecessor’s DEI initiatives. While some companies have shifted how they address DEI — Walmart now uses the phrase “belonging” — even before Trump took office, several in the footwear sector, such as REI Co-op, have indicated no plans to scale back efforts.

For its part, Adidas last year expanded the role of Vanessa Abrahams-John, its global head of DEI, to include oversight of the brand’s North America human resources team.