Adidas has found itself embroiled in a second hoax this year orchestrated by the activist collective Yes Man, aiming to spotlight the plight of garment workers in its supply chain.
During a tech conference Web Summit, the activists impersonated Adidas representatives to announce plans to pay workers with virtual currency for purchasing goods in an inaccessible ‘AdiVerse’, inaccessible to them in the real world.
The German sports giant was previously targeted by Yes Man during Berlin Fashion Week, with a fabricated statement suggesting that Adidas’s CEO would be hiring a former garment worker as co-CEO. The organisation claimed that Adidas would sign the Pay Your Workers – Respect Labour Rights agreement.
Adidas has faced mounting criticism regarding its treatment of garment workers, particularly after failing to ensure full payment to workers during the pandemic. Referencing a 2021 report by Switzerland’s Public Eye, Yes Man has labelled Adidas as the “worst offender in the field of pandemic-era wage theft”, allegedly owing US $ 11 million in back wages to garment workers.
The Pay Your Workers campaign has intensified its pressure on Adidas to sign the agreement as unions and labour rights organisations rally for worker compensation. Billy Yates, US director of the campaign, alleged, “Adidas spending considerable amounts of money to make up an alternative currency and virtual universe to avoid paying its garment workers what they are owed is not that far from the truth.”
“The reality might be even darker: Adidas has spent hundreds of millions sponsoring FIFA’s Qatar debacle while ignoring the rightful claims of workers in Cambodia, Indonesia, and elsewhere to the money they are owed”, he added.
Responding to these allegations, Stefan Pursche, Adidas’s director of media relations, refuted the claims in a statement to FashionUnited, “Even during the pandemic, Adidas has ensured fair working conditions and wages as well as a safe working environment at its suppliers. We have continued to source products from our partners and have fully honoured our payment obligations for produced and ongoing orders. We have also ensured compliance with legal requirements regarding income and social benefits and documented the working conditions in each individual factory.”
He added, “Adidas has been ensuring fair and safe working conditions for employees in its supply chain for more than 25 years through a variety of measures. The Adidas Workplace Standards require our suppliers to progressively improve workers’ compensation and living standards through continuous development of compensation systems, benefits, social programmes and other services.”
