Black and Latinx people will get 30% of new US jobs at Adidas, Reebok, company says

Thirty percent of new U.S. jobs at Adidas and Reebok will go to black and Latinx people, the company said Tuesday.

The company also says it will invest in the black community and in university scholarships for black employees, according to a news release.

“The events of the past two weeks have caused all of us to reflect on what we can do to confront the cultural and systemic forces that sustain racism,” CEO Kasper Rorsted said in the release. “We have had to look inward to ourselves as individuals and our organization and reflect on systems that disadvantage and silence black individuals and communities.”

George Floyd, a black man, died while in police custody on May 25 and his death sparked an avalanche of protests across the nation. He died after now-fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Three other officers didn’t intervene.

Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. He remains jailed with bail set at $1.25 million. Officers J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao were also fired and arrested, charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

Adidas said it will invest $20 million over the next four years in programs that empower and support the black community, including a basketball platform for under-served communities and a design school that provides a pathway for careers in footwear design, the release said.

Adidas also said it would finance 50 university scholarships for black employees over the next five years, according to the release.

“While we have talked about the importance of inclusion, we must do more to create an environment in which all of our employees feel safe, heard and have equal opportunity to advance their careers,” Rorsted said in the release. “As adidas, we will create a lasting change and we will do it now.”

The move comes after Footwear News reported last week that 150 employees between company’s Portland, Oregon, and Germany offices were calling on the company to better support its black employees.

The group urged the company to ensure that 31% of workers at every level of the organization are black or Latinx by Dec. 31, 2021, as well as implement a new hiring policy that requires black and Latinx people to be interviewed for every open position, according to Footwear News.

“It’s frustrating to see images of black women around the brand, wearing the clothing and wearing the shoes but there’s nobody that looks like me that is there” designing the products, Julia Bond told Oregon Live.

Bond is the only black female designer at Adidas’ Portland headquarters, according to the outlet, and has helped lead protests at the offices.

“I see the potential this brand has to do the right thing and be a leader,” Bond told Live. “I see the potential to do very good work, but it starts with Adidas apologizing.”

Some Adidas employees thought the company’s statements on the death of Floyd were at odds with representation and support for black employees within the company, the Wall Street Journal reported. Adidas made posts on Twitter and Instagram.

Aric Armon, a footwear designer at the Portland office, said the statements, “don’t necessarily align with how anybody feels internally about the things that (Adidas) does to help support black people,” he told the Wall Street Journal.

Adidas responded to the backlash promising change.

“We recognize that we have not done enough and we are dedicated to doing more,” Adidas said, according to the Journal.

This story was originally published June 10, 2020 at 9:58 AM with the headline "Black and Latinx people will get 30% of new US jobs at Adidas, Reebok, company says."