‘Promoting Slavery’?: Adidas Under Fire for Sneakers That Include Orange Shackles
- Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:15am by
Erica Ritz
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Adidas has drawn harsh criticism with the promotion of its new JS Roundhouse Mids, new shoes that feature bright orange shackles reminiscent of those worn by slaves in the 19th century, or prison inmates today.
“Got a sneaker game so hot you lock your kicks to your ankles?” the company asked over a Facebook promotion on June 14.
“Tighten up your style with the JS Roundhouse Mids, dropping in August.”
Check out the sneakers, below:
(Photo: Adidas/Facebook)
More than 7,000 people have “shared” the story, and more than 2,000 have left comments.
One man, George Geder, commented: “I think it’s inappropriate. The idea of being chained to Adidas or any object is repulsive.” Others maintain the product is “ignorant” and “promoting slavery.”
Dr Boyce Watkins, a professor at Syracuse University, weighed in: “Shackles. The stuff that our ancestors wore for 400 years while experiencing the most horrific atrocities imaginable…Most of which were never documented in the history books and kept away from you in the educational system, all so you’d be willing to put shackles on your ankles today and not be so sensitive about it.”
(Photo: Adidas via Indiewire)
He continued: “There is always a group of negroes who are more than happy to resubmit themselves to slavery…I’m offended by these shoes as there is nothing funny about the prison industrial complex, which is the most genocidal thing to happen to the black family since slavery itself.”
Another Facebook user, Kay Tee, wrote: “It’s offensive and inappropriate in many ways. Not to mention ugly.” And regardless of whether it is intentionally referring to slavery and prison, the Facebook user continues, it is still “capitalizing on prison style popularity.”
“How would a Jewish person feel if they decided to have a shoe with a swastika on it and tried to claim it was OK in the name of fashion?”
However, Yali Weiss points out: “Not everything with a chain is related to slavery.”
Adidas has not yet released an official comment.
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Comments (114)
DeserveLiberty
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 12:08pmIsn’t this just laughing at the atrocity of people being murdered as their trendy basketball shoes are being stolen?
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 12:53pmWhat’s the big deal, all their baggy pants around their knees, were prison inspired fashion…….blacks are going backwards in this country………
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 1:05pmIf…. we are Free & Equal… their should be No Law against Personal Choice!
Report Post »@leftfighter
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 1:23pmI’d buy them.
If for nothing else, as a statement about US fiscal and taxation policy.
Are they going to make them in infant sizes? That‘s who’s really getting shackled.
Report Post »Make them stop
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 1:24pmHey bikers have chains on there wallets. There not crying about any bs like this.
Report Post »JRook
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 1:53pmAn accurate metaphor for the compensation they provide the workers who make their sneakers. But of course exploitation of labor is good capitalism, right……. Hint Wrong.
Report Post »Redwood Elf
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 2:14pmThey’re obviously training-wheels for teenage gang members, to help them get used to the kind of attire they’ll be wearing when they get busted for their crimes and sent to prison.
Should be sold with a matching orange jumpsuit.
Report Post »realistic_01
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 3:02pm@jrook
Yeah, let’s close all the factories and send them back to the rice fields where they can earn … um? When will you progressives quit lying, admit that there is inequality in the world, always has been, always will be, and admit that capitalism provides an opportunity for many to improve their lives dramatically instead of having to live in the equally shared misery your utopia imposes?
Report Post »FreedomPurveyor
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 6:17pmIn a statement just released, Adidas regrets its poor judgement and as a consequence will offer the shoes for 3/5 of normal price.
Report Post »joex51
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 12:04pmOK seriously you think there are NO Black People that work for ADIDAS? there are no Blacks in the marketing dept. or in the Design team?
Report Post »My question is who would by these anyways? WTF does the god ugly Orange chains and shackles do they help you run faster or jump higher?
oh they are for security, so if someone tries to mug you for you sneakers you can say oops i forgot the key at home. Seriously if you don;t like the sneaker don’t buy it or boycott it, save the race card for when you actually need it….
SLOWBIDEN
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 12:12pmThe might be referring to the hundreds of acses of people being beaten and robbed for their shoes only. (most of those crimes ar commited by blacks- just saying)
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 2:15pmSYMBOLIC of Slavery or Prison? I’d like to send a pair to Holder!
Report Post »Dougral Supports Israel
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 12:02pmAdidas isn’t promoting anything except making a profit. Their marketers obviously think those shoes will sell. They believe there is a target demographic that will think the shoes are cool.
Report Post »chips1
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 12:31pmWOW!!! Dem chooze be bad! I be bying a tent and gettin in line.
Report Post »ginger100
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 12:52pmDems must be da shoes Shelia Jackson Lee showed up in dis country wit
Report Post »Bikkiboo
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 10:35pmThese look more like women’s sandal straps – to go with their “skirts” ( dropped drawers).
Report Post »Really, how long will those cheap plastic links hold up? Maybe they‘re really to keep the shoes on because these kids don’t tie them anyway.
Cavallo
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:55amIf some christian group got upset because they saw it as BDSM, they would be laughed at. If it is about race.. oh.. we must take their feelings seriously. If you are a company marketing anything to the “ethnic” community, you must accept that you will be called racist with regular frequency, also be prepared to have a fund set aside for the extortion that race centric groups will demand as penance for any imagined transgression.
Report Post »Individualism
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:53amits not a shoe for performance it is one for protest.
Report Post »Ne_FAL
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 12:26pmHate to bust your bubble Individualism but these shoes will be overpriced & folks in the Black community will line up for hours to buy the newest version of felony fliers aka newest track shoe/tennis shoe . Meanwhile those who are actually trying to get ahead with their education are harassed for “acting White” even to the point of being murdered. The folks at Adidas no exactly who they are selling this shoe to & exactly what they think because they unlike you actually do research on the subject.
Report Post »valleyfever
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:52amCan you buy them with an EBT card?
Report Post »LARR
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:48amWere not pierceings/earrings signs of slavery way way back?
Report Post »joex51
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:58amYes but that actually started with Sailors and Pirates in the 17th century I beleive
Report Post »wtimber
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 2:15pmThe oldest mummified remains ever discovered were sporting earrings, attesting to the existence of the practice more than 5,000 years ago.
Report Post »chips1
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 3:10pmHere it comes. First earrings, then a bone in your nose, then the Ubangi look.
Report Post »LakewoodEd
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:48amThose aren’t slave chains, those a jail shackles.
Lets your friends know, you’ve been there.
Report Post »Mil-Dot
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:54amExactly. They all want people to think that they are straight out of jail, so WTF? Looks like the same old, tired crap. Just the same group of people looking to be offended. It never changes.
Report Post »ivedonebeensassedbyawhore
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 12:34pmMy thoughts exactly lake… Or, if they haven’t already been there, they will be there soon…. lol…
Report Post »ivedonebeensassedbyawhore
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 12:36pmIf Obama had a son, he’d wear…. ohhh nevermind…..
Report Post »LeadNotFollow
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:47am…
Report Post »Are the protesters assuming, that only Black folks will be buying and wearing these expensive shoes?
Mil-Dot
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:57amThey assume that EVERYTHING that anybody does is about them or is a veiled swipe at them. It is in their DNA.
Report Post »dimitrisokolov
Posted on June 19, 2012 at 9:52amThat’s pretty much a given.
Report Post »ApplyCS
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:44amWhat a poor statement to our culture when canvas, nylon and rubber dictate the mentality of the “wanting / gimme” class – woops da it is. And now the common sense (lackof it) will excuse back that this is a racist statement.
Well the fact that Obama does not operate with a budget and the Senate sets a high financial standard – I guess our citizenery has great examples to go by.
Report Post »Blazen420
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:42amWho comes up with this crap?……. Those shoes have to be designed by a black dude because no white guy that I know would be caught dead in them.
Report Post »chips1
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 12:41pmIf Adidas puts I.D. numbers on each pair, it will be easier to track down the murder suspects, Sort of like tracking down Holder for the Obama murder gang.
Report Post »biohazard23
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:40am“…the prison industrial complex, which is the most genocidal thing to happen to the black family since slavery itself.”
Oh sure. And Democrat/“progressive” policies in addition to the abdication of all personal responsibility by the baby daddies and mommas have absolutely nothing at all to do with the decimation of the black family…..
Report Post »normalmom
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 12:23pmNo offense but the black community still has to make their own choices to let the long ago past of slavery rule them or to make something better of themselves. No one is telling them they have to be in gangs and live in poverty they chose to waste money on stupid stuff. Too many people these days are saying its somebody else’s fault.
Report Post »CatB
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 12:23pmWelfare … it isn’t the prisons .. it is welfare that makes a man unimportant to the family that has caused the decline .. the prisons are a result.
Report Post »Barbarian
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:33am…I was just sitting here thinking that time is slowly running out on my getting a job where I could have an briefcase handcuffed to my wrist…
Those shoes are stupid looking, which means: who cares?
…I mean…other than being able to mock people wearing them (Kinda’ like when Crocks first came out).
Now that I think about it…wouldn’t they be required by race-baiters like the Good Reverands Jessi and Al for their protest marchs? “Kicks with a white bread, honkey-hatin‘ ’tude for the fight for the struggle of the cause for redundant knee-jerk bloviating?”
Just a thought.
Report Post »chips1
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:33amThey could sell millions more, if it said “Chains we can Believe In”.
Report Post »SammyStutsfruckle
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:48amBwahahaha good bit!
Report Post »countryfirst
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 3:06pmWould it interfere with the courts ankle monitor ?
Report Post »jacques.daspy
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:31amWhat do we call the relationship between Obama’s money and the millions that are entitled. They will never have a job in their lives and will remain “related” to the only source of income that they have ever known. Do they call it freedom?
Report Post »term limits for congress
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:28amI doubt this is a reference to slavery – it is a reference to prison. So, when you’re walking down the street with the pants on the ground and underwear showing, you’ll have the shoes to go with that look. The shoelaces are optional equipment.
Report Post »Countrygirl1362
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:28amWho would actually spend money on those?
Report Post »stungun
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:24am“Black man trapped again, holds his chains in his hand . . .” Queensyche.
Report Post »honor007
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:42amBrother killed brother for a profit of another? game point. nobody wins!
;-)
Report Post »\m/
Red Meat
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:23amDo they have a GPS device imbedded? Save the state some $cratch.
Report Post »hotteamakers
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:22amNow if they sell for $500 a pair, every black will want a pair. They should have paid some black NBA player to endorse the shackles.
Report Post »Tri-ox
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:22amWhatever. 19th Century slaves would have been thrilled to be chained with shackles made of cheap Chinese plastic.
Report Post »Mutiny
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:22amWell blacks like to steal shoes from people so maybe its a security device? Also, do blacks realize that almost every race on this planet has been enslaved before? They dont own the copy right on slavery.
Report Post »piper60
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:20amAs to the swastika comment, they’d be more likely to put a yellow start of David on the shoes.
Report Post »piper60
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:19amThese sneakers are so ugly. I bet the shackles are to keep the kids from taking them off and throwing them away. I cannot imagine that anybody would buy these, but then, I don’t understand the whole baggy pants thing, either.
Report Post »chips1
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:36amIt’s just trying to replace the hoodie. Hope it glows in the dark.
Report Post »FreedomWitness
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:17amWho bloody cares! You either want those hideous shoes or you have an IQ over 70.
Report Post »stungun
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 11:26amGoes well with pants hanging off your ass.
Report Post »FreedomWitness
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 12:41pmWhen folks have their pants hanging off their asses are they really just showing us their brains?
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