“We don’t do this for [return on investment],” she said. “And I will just say, the question comes up, candidly, a little too much.” About five months later, Microsoft discontinued most of its ergonomic keyboards. When asked about sales projections for Victoria’s Secret’s adaptive line, chief diversity officer Lydia Smith, like Lay-Flurrie, “declined to share the company’s sales projections,” according to Vogue. If adaptive sales aren’t a viable goal for corporations, then why are they doing this?
In 2020, as Victoria’s Secret was working to correct precipitous sales declines that led to store closures and a stock drop of more than 75 percent from its 2015 peak, a New York Times investigation revealed an entrenched culture of misogyny, bullying, and harassment at the company.
“Shares reached an all-time low in September, down 78 percent from 2021,” Bloomberg reported. Similarly, Adidas was already combating diminished relevance when it terminated its relationship with rapper Kanye “Ye” West in 2022 for, among other things, making his antisemitism known to the wider world. This year, Adidas is expecting to see sales drop by $2 billion, with “more shoes to drop,” creating a starker situation than its 2023 financial guidance had anticipated. Scheier hasn’t just exploited disabled people, she has also found ways to capitalize on the vulnerabilities of previously formidable corporations that have found themselves in crisis.