This site uses cookies to improve your experience and to provide services and advertising.
By continuing to browse, you agree to the use of cookies described in our Cookies Policy.
You may change your settings at any time but this may impact on the functionality of the site.
To learn more see our Cookies Policy.
ADIDAS HAS CANCELLED plans for a new sneaker amid criticisms that the shoes could be seen to symbolise slavery.
The ‘shackle sneakers’, pictured right, stirred up a storm online when Adidas posted a photo of the new shoes on its Facebook page last Thursday, CNN reports.
Expected to release in August, the high-top sneakers dubbed the JS Roundhouse Mids were posted on the company’s Facebook profile with the caption, “Got a sneaker game so hot you lock your kicks to your ankles?”
Advertisement
In a statement, Adidas said the sneaker “is nothing more than the designer Jeremy Scott’s outrageous and unique take on fashion and has nothing to do with slavery”.
Some Twitter users expressed their distaste for the new Adidas design. Ferrari Sheppard said, “Those Adidas shackles could symbolise slavery, or imprisonment, either way, I’m not interested,” and Naissa Lopez tweeted, “Who would wear those is beyond me”.
Adidas said the design has received both favourable and critical feeback but still decided to withdraw plans to make them available in the marketplace.
Before the shoes were removed from Facebook, Rev. Jesse Jackson also condemned the new design. “The attempt to commercialize and make popular more than 200 years of human degradation, where blacks were considered three-fifths human by our Constitution is offensive, appalling and insensitive,” Jackson said.
Saturday 16 November, 2024
Saturday 16 November, 2024
Download our app
Adidas scraps outrageous 'shackle sneakers'
ADIDAS HAS CANCELLED plans for a new sneaker amid criticisms that the shoes could be seen to symbolise slavery.
The ‘shackle sneakers’, pictured right, stirred up a storm online when Adidas posted a photo of the new shoes on its Facebook page last Thursday, CNN reports.
Expected to release in August, the high-top sneakers dubbed the JS Roundhouse Mids were posted on the company’s Facebook profile with the caption, “Got a sneaker game so hot you lock your kicks to your ankles?”
In a statement, Adidas said the sneaker “is nothing more than the designer Jeremy Scott’s outrageous and unique take on fashion and has nothing to do with slavery”.
Some Twitter users expressed their distaste for the new Adidas design. Ferrari Sheppard said, “Those Adidas shackles could symbolise slavery, or imprisonment, either way, I’m not interested,” and Naissa Lopez tweeted, “Who would wear those is beyond me”.
Adidas said the design has received both favourable and critical feeback but still decided to withdraw plans to make them available in the marketplace.
Before the shoes were removed from Facebook, Rev. Jesse Jackson also condemned the new design. “The attempt to commercialize and make popular more than 200 years of human degradation, where blacks were considered three-fifths human by our Constitution is offensive, appalling and insensitive,” Jackson said.
Adidas removed the post yesterday evening.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Adidas Adidas sneakers Jeremy Scott JS Roundhouse Mids Rev. David Pearse shackle sneakers Slavery