Adidas has announced it’s closing all stores in North America and some stores in Western Europe. In a statement released today (March 18, 2020), the company stated, “To all our athletes teammates and friends across the world, your health is what matters most. In support of the worldwide effort to keep our communities safe, we have decided to close stores in select countries through March 29.”
Following their original statement, @Adidas has changed course and will now close retail locations from March 17-29.
— Jacques Slade (@kustoo) March 18, 2020
I’ve reached out to see if retail employees will be compensated during the two week closure. pic.twitter.com/eg7gosOv4i
Adidas closing all stores through March 29th in Europe, US and Canada. Retail employees will continue to receive pay for all hours they’ve been scheduled to work during the closures.
— Jess Golden (@JGolden5) March 17, 2020
According to CNBC reporter Jess Golden, retail employees will continue to receive pay for all hours they’ve been schedule to work during the closures.
The shut down news followed a controversial internal email in which the Herzogenaurach, Germany-based company stated it would keep stores open.
adidas will not close any stores due to COVID-19. CEO says in letter to employees: “Closing down is easy, staying open in a healthy environment requires courage, persistence and focus.” This is a bit…disturbinghttps://t.co/QyvsFpI2bB pic.twitter.com/fd5QDmfG3s
— Sneaker News (@SneakerNews) March 16, 2020
The original email announcing the plan to stay open read, “Our primary objective at Adidas is to ensure our teams come through this safe and well. At the same time, we have to keep the company going and open for business to ensure we can pay our monthly bills and salaries to everyone. This is a very delicate and important balance for us to find.”
In what was widely viewed as a tone deaf statement, the memo continued, “Closing down is easy. Staying open in a healthy environment requires courage, persistence and focus.
