What's going on with Adidas & Bella Hadid ?

Back in 2022 the Adidas Sambas had a mesmerising resurgence. The shoes, initially launched in the ‘50s, garnered attention after multiple celebrities were seen sporting them. Although many played a role in this rebirth, it was the stamp of approval given by Bella Hadid who was spotted in the timeless sneaker during Milan Fashion Week, that truly cemented them as that year’s “IT” shoe. They sold out worldwide.

The trend carried well into 2024, as it goes with classic shoes that can be styled in a multitude of ways. Adidas decided to get a jump on their representative for the “It Shoe” competition by having Bella be the ambassador for their relaunched SL72 silhouette.

The shoe was originally created for road runners and released around the 1972 Olympics. It has been re-released with two different concepts, SL72 RS & SL72 OG with five new colourways, supported by a gigantic billboard in Times Square featuring one of Gen Z’s favourite style icons and the shoes' greatest advocate; Bella Hadid.

A few days later, Israel's official account on Twitter/X commented on the campaign, criticising the German brand's choice to have the half Palestinian model as an ambassador. The tweet referred to the attack on Israeli athletes by members of the Black September group, a Palestinian militant organisation formed in 1970 after the Black September conflict which resulted in the deaths of thousands of Palestinian fighters in Jordan. The attack during the 1972 Summer Olympics, also known as the Munich Massacre, led to the deaths of 11 Israelis, as well as one German policeman.

After the criticism of the implications of hiring Bella, which to Israel's supporters claimed was a subtle manoeuvre to side with the people of Palestine during the ongoing Israeli military campaign (coming in the wake of the International Court of Justice’s declaration that Israel has illegal control of Palestinian territories and Palestinians are due reparations for the harm of the system that has systematically discriminated against them since 1967).

Adidas pulled the images featuring her from their social media pages. On Friday, July 19th, Adidas followed it up with an apology, stating that they would revise the remainder of the campaign but the imagery featuring the other ambassadors, Jules Koundé, A$AP Nast and Sabrina Lan remained online. Two days later, on July 21st, news broke that Bella had hired a legal team to sue the sportswear giant for a lack of public accountability for launching a campaign that could be linked to the horrifying event that took place 52 years ago in Munich. Adidas then issued a public apology to Bella as well as the other three ambassadors who were a part of the campaign.

Bella’s campaign photos were released on July 15th & 16th and Adidas stock price jumped from 228 € /share to 240 € by the time trading opened on July 17th. Whilst one cannot directly attribute this to her, getting an endorsement from arguably the biggest model of this generation, someone who sets trends simply by stepping outside, certainly helped.

On July 21st, when Bella threatened to sue Adidas, their stock price fell a stunning 2.45% which is a fall of roughly 1.03 billion euro. The earned negative media attention that came from the firing of Bella Hadid and the hashtag “Boycott Adidas” trending on Twitter/X could spell troubling times ahead for the German brand.