Adidas CEO Hints Brand May Cease Using K-Leather ‘Faster Than You Think’

It appears that PETA’s pleas for Adidas to phase out kangaroo leather weren’t brushed aside.

Last week, the animal rights organization—among others—crashed the sportswear giant’s annual meeting in Fürth, Germany, demanding answers about the group’s use of the controversial material.

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While answering shareholder’s questions about the use of the skin, Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden acknowledged that the commercial industry killing of kangaroos in the name of making shoes is “terrible,” per the Center for a Humane Economy, and that Adidas may “switch faster than you think.”

“Adidas’ CEO has publicly acknowledged the mass shootings of kangaroos in Australia is cruel and implied that the company may stop purchasing skins from kangaroos shot in the wild,” Jennifer Skiff, director of the Kangaroos Are Not Shoes campaign at the Center for a Humane Economy, said. “We encourage him to make that announcement soon, since the worldwide animal welfare community is deeply concerned that Adidas is an outlier on this issue and its sourcing of skins violates its publicly stated policies about the humane treatment of animals.”

Skiff added that the center is “skeptical” of the company’s pledges in this regard; in 2012, Adidas promised to reduce its use of kangaroo leather by 98 percent, thus ending its role in the kangaroo skin trade, but then “reneged,” she said.

The German brand is the only major footwear manufacturer still making soccer cleats from k-leather. Puma committed to phasing out kangaroo leather in 2023 with a new material dubbed K-Better. Around that same time, Nike pledged to stop making products with kangaroo leather as well, though it allegedly divested of its only supplier in 2021, and debuted a proprietary synthetic upper to replace the use of the skin. In September, New Balance vowed to ditch k-leather by the end of 2024.

“Adidas must divorce itself from the world’s largest slaughter of land mammals for a product nobody needs and that its competitors have already shunned,” Wayne Pacelle, president of the Center for a Humane Economy, said. “The only reason the commercial shooting of kangaroos and the orphaning of their joeys occurs is because non-Australian companies like Adidas buy up the skins. End the purchase of the skins and the commercial kill collapses.”

“After years of pressure from PETA and other animal rights organizations, Adidas has finally come to see that intelligent, family-oriented kangaroos shouldn’t be killed for cleats,” PETA told Sourcing Journal. “Adidas must move swiftly toward using only non-animal materials.”

It’s worth noting that Gulden stated in the video above that Adidas was not acting in response to any outside pressures.

Adidas declined to comment on what was said during the annual meeting.