In Spring 2022, adidas announced its partnership with Impact Hub and Blavity.org to launch a new program called Cultivate & B.L.O.O.M. (Building Legacies Out of Movements), an accelerator program
There is an uncomfortable reality of sharing empowering and good news in a media/soundbite society. A company announces a program they’ve been working on and due to the climate, the response is, “They’re doing this to save face.” I’m writing this sentence at the start of this post, adidas has been working on initiatives catering to Black and Brown people consistently. The problem has been all of the work they are doing isn’t highlighted on major sneaker media sites or news sites, yet adidas still funnels information about sneakers and seeds influencers with product allowing the important work to end up in the backseat waiting for a turn to be discovered. Why did I write this paragraph? Because as soon as I share this post, the response on social media will be, “They’re only doing this to offset Kanye,” which simply isn’t true.
I’m not absolving adidas by any means. As I said, their process of seeding influencers and delivering information to mainstream, more sensational, hype content driven sneaker outlets determines how the brand is viewed. adidas also hasn’t changed much on the inside from when I wrote this post on diversity:
For Nike, adidas and Many Brands, Diversity Appears to Place Gender Before Color
The supervisory board and executive board have one Black person for a company whose major endorsers are primarily Black. It’s always difficult to present a new project without delivering qualifying statements to truly analyze the topic. adidas Cultivate & B.L.O.O.M. Program is, “eight Black women social entrepreneurs were identified to participate in the first-ever Cultivate & B.L.O.O.M. cohort. The first cohort kicked off in July 2022 and will graduate in March 2023.
Throughout their nine months in the program, entrepreneurs have access to a tailored portfolio of resources and opportunities from within and outside of the adidas ecosystems that will serve to accelerate their impact. These resources include funding, access to industry experts, mentorship, workshops, fireside chats and visibility into adidas’ networks.”
This is an important program, but considering the number of businesses that fail, there is an inherent scrutiny required that speaks towards the reality that a small program like this is important, but it’s surface level for an iceberg issue. I do admire the funding and assistance these women will get, and I wouldn’t want to remove this opportunity, but a broader engagement tool, just as easily implemented, would be partnering with HBCUs and PWI’s (Black Student Unions because this demographic of Black students is seriously overlooked in favor of the HBCU) to build into the curriculum of business and writing programs courses of study as electives. This can be done via “Extended Studies” programs or in coordination with curriculum advisors at the schools. I don’t want to make this negative considering I began this post with the reality that people will say adidas is only trying to save face. The program began long before the fallout with Ye. It also arrived after the amplification of the S.E.E.D. program and not long after this project:
adidas’ Diversification of Projects Shows a Positive Trend | Running While Black on Vice
Check out the list of the companies involved in Cultivate and B.L.O.O.M., it is an impressive and needed opportunity. For those who would ask, “why are brands focusing on the Black community in the U.S.?”, the Black dollar and body (slavery, sharecropping, last hired-first fired practices) has been utilized to prop up the economy and businesses, while the people in the Black communities are still undereducated and underserved. Overcoming systemic issues, racism and mistreatment requires that the government and businesses offer solutions to increasing equality and opportunity. adidas is a company built on the legacy of Jesse Owens, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Run-DMC, and a roster of athletes today when listed is a veritable palette of Black and Brown shades: Damian Lillard, Candace Parker, Paul Pogba, Pharrell, Beyonce… Use the source link to read more.
