in light of the fears surrounding the Coronavirus. The pandemic has cross borders and officials are expecting it to get a lot worse in the coming weeks and months. With this in mind, decided to issue a statement yesterday in which they noted that stores will not be closing and that staying open requires great strength.

“We have to keep the company going and open for business to ensure that we can pay our monthly bills and salaries to everyone,” Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted wrote. “Closing down is easy, staying open in a healthy environment requires courage, persistence and focus.”

According to Yahoo!, many Adidas employees were extremely upset about this decision and felt as though Adidas was being ignorant to the situation.

“It’s ridiculous and I’m outraged,” said an employee in New York. “Seeing lead the way in the retail closings and seeing a lot of other companies follow suit, it’s extremely frustrating. They’re waiting for someone to force them to close instead of being proactive.” 

Following this outrage, Adidas decided to cave and closed all of its stores in North America and Europe, at least until March 29th.