After Public Outcry, Adidas Cancels the Sneakers with Shackles
After massive public backlash, Adidas has announced that it no longer has plans to release the shackled sneaker that it was planning to put on the market in August. The sneakers, called the JS Roundhouse Mids, were originally placed on the Adidas Facebook page.
“Got a sneaker game so hot you lock your kicks to your ankles?” the company asked on its page, displaying the shoes with shackles on the back of them. The post led to responses from around the world.
“Wow obviously there was no one of color in the room when the marketing/product team ok’d this,” said one commentator.
“I literally froze up when I saw a new design from Adidas set to hit stores in August,” said Dr. Boyce Watkins in a post for the website Your Black World.
Adidas continues to argue that the sneakers were not meant to promote slavery or incarceration. But people around the world have disagreed. The company’s decision to remove the sneakers from the market is the safe bet, since reaction was growing with each passing day. Even Rev. Jesse Jackson had something to say on the matter.
“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,” said Rev. Jackson in a statement.
Comments
Powered by Facebook Comments
They knew what they were doing, trying to make fun of Black people.
Correction: They knew what they were doing but it was not to make fun of black people. It was to make money and lots of it off black people. We (African Americans) would be camping out for days waiting for the doors to open to purchase these shoes, no matter the cost. In fact, we would probably even kill for them. We have lost all sense of pride and respect for ourselves for trash the the white men sell to us.
I couldn’t have agreed with you more. You are absolutely correct that Black people, would have lined up for days to purchase these sneakers, and would have killed anyone that tried to stop them, or get in their way. Our people, have lost any sense of pride, and respect for themselves, and this is evident in the manner in which we denigrate ourselves by referring to us as n*****s, and the mannerism that we display on TV shows like Maury.
I have seen Black people that wanted to kill another Black person, because that Black person objected to being called n****r.
We don’t have to fear another race killing, and destroying us, we are doing an excellent job doing this ourselves. People, if we don’t love and respect ourselves, how do we expect others to. Every other nationality, and race that has come to this country, gets more respect, and are treated better than us, and has more power. We must correct these issues, if we are going to be a significant, or even existentant group in the future.
To all the rappers out there: I challenge, or even dare you to make a record replacing the word n****s, with GuiSpic’sSpics, Waps, or Kites. I dare you to go up to an Hispanic person, and say “What’s up Spic”, or to an Italian, and say “What’s up Guinea”, or to a Jew “What’s up Kite.
u make a good point. my only problem…if p diddy, kanye or some other black rapper put this shoe out we wouldn’t be saying s**t.
just like the n word, if a black use it we say nothing, but if a white does it, we are in an outrage…d**n shame…
I believe they knew as well and it didn’t go towards just black people but to all that were enslaved in one way or the other.
agree..apology is not enough for me..they knew what they were doing when they put this shoe out.
i will never buy anothe pair of adidas.
I was outraged when I saw this shoe and will never buy another pair of Adidas again in life!
Bravo to the world! Enough of the backroom racism in corporation boardrooms! We are angry with systemic racial STEREOTYPES!!!! Stop In The Name Of Humanity…..
I agree with Mustafa,they knew exactly what they were doing.I wish I had known about this 3 weeks ago,I wouldn’t have purchased adidas’ for my grandsons.Never again!!
Yea they mess up this time maybe they need someone who can help them do better in the sales department, cause looks like who ever thought of bringing this shoe to market must been on drugs or needs some consulting about history, but Adidas just done mess up and the need a black man or woman to show then how to talk to the urban world of people, but what does Paul Mooney have to say about it I wanna hear him comment on these shoes
Here is the more important question. Were there any black people involved in this decision? I would think that if you had black people somewhere in this process someone would have advised them that maybe these shoes with the chains would not be a good idea!
This doesn’t suprise me because they don’t had any respect for us. They knew d**n well what they were doing.
PPLE DONT PURCHASES ADDIDAS ANYMORE! CORPORATIONS HIRE DIVERSE EMPLOYEES WHO CARE ABOUT RACISM ANYWHERE.
The tragedy is that a black athlete would have endorsed it and our kids would have paid an absurd price for this item.
a leader from the African American community should take the initiative for a boycott on Adidas. We should be protesting this like we cried out in the Trayvon Martin case. This is the very reason why white America believes that they can kill our sons and daughters and yet we are not sounding the alarm on this matter
Now If we could just stop the money changers from floating Variable Rate Mortgages we could take the chains off of our digs and unjustified hands out of our pockets.
Where can I get me a pair? Those kiks are tight!
The young people would have bought them like hotcakes! Most do not know their history and do not know how to think for themselves. Who’s fault is that? The old and middle aged people. We refuse to stand for justice when it threatens our lives.
Wake up people if they disrespect the most powerful Black Man in America(President Obama) on a daily basis and get away with it.
Then yes they will make shackle shoes!! Next it will be noose shirts or ties. I say we shoulde have started the out cry a long time ago. Maybe it would not have gotten this far!!!
My Grandmother use to say stop it before it gets started. I say these Mofos are out of CONTROL. JEST LETS us KNOW WHAT THEY REALLY THINK ABOUT us!! Notice how small the us is.
We should start an economic boycott of all the companies that do not support Black people interest. They disrepect us because we let them. We should hit them where it hurts. I buy assets not liabilities.
We need to wake up, these pimps target every minority group! The makers of ALL sneakers are undercover pimps! They use people who look like us to convince a mother who can’t even feed her kids to buy some $200 shoes that he will never wear out. He’ll get pimped into buying the next $250 shoe in 3 months to keep his friends from thinking he is less than what he is. This whole think is BS! We you don’t see white kids wearing this c**p, they wear torn, taped together Converse while they have thousands in bank accounts! If we put the money for every pair we were going to buy in the bank for 3 yrs, we might be able to purchase a car, new furniture or even better, JUST SAVE IT! I also understand that this has been so ingrained in our kids head that if the mother didn’t buy them they might result to stealing or even killing for them. Parents have to take their kids back!
Junei, I can’t say how right you are or how much knowledge is poured into your short few lines but I will say that I will ask all the young mothers I know to read what you have brought to life here,. it is the duty of the parents to take the time off from their careers and teach their own children what to believe as truth and with what to spend their money on.. These are two places were we must express responsibility ourselves.. “what not to believe and what not to spend money on… lionstruth@yahoo.com
When will Black people stop patronizing and giving their wealth to
those other than themselves, who see Black people as fools (which many are), who allow themselves to be exploited as these foriegners take advantage of Black ignorance, Black disunity. It is time, past time for Black People to wake the p***k up, and unite!
Every race and nation makes money off African-Americans. We follow every “FAD” refusing to keep our money in our pocket for family.
What is so sad about it is they would have sold millions and to US.
Stop buying every ridiculous item that comes on the market!
We don,t need to protest, we don,t need black people on Adiddas corp board what we need is to make our own (________) you fill in the blank. Until we become manufactures we will be subject to this kind of racist treatment!
With the history of violence and addiction associated with sneakers like Nike and Adidas, I thought that many were already enslaved to these modern slave drivers and sweat shop moguls!
I am pleased to hear these shoes have been pulled and will not be sold. I can’t believe Adidas would have the nerve to create such a shoe. Looks like Nike has all of my business.
With all the b.s. going on in the world. A sneakers company to make a pair of sneakers with shackles on them, show. how how out of control our country is.An I am a older person.
Those shoes totally turn me off … Black or not! Incarceration isn’t anything to celebrate either. The very idea of someone trying to make money off either slavery or imprisonment sickens me. Human beings are capable of being more respecting of one another than this!
By the way … the slur for the Jews is “Kike”, not “Kite” … I believe the word is from a demeaning Yiddish word if I remember right. It is about as insulting as the “N” word is though. You were close on the spelling though. I have some Jewish in my ancestry.
Some further information on the term here:
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=kike
I’m not offended by the shackles however what’s most offensive is how ungly those d**n sneakers are!!! I mean you can’t be serious!!!
Epic fail!!!
my name is Gary Coppedge and i do not APPROVE!
Sadly, I agree with Moonhead. Go to Addidas’ Facebook page and read the n**i & Klan inspired comments there about these disgusting shoes. I wonder how many negros at Addidas knew of, and/or approved the marketing of these abominations? On there FB page I suggested their next shoe be feature a star of David on the heal and a swastika on it’s toe and shoot plumes of steam when the wearer walked in tribute to n**i gas chambers. We have lost all pride, because our history begins and ends with our capture and incarceration in America. Most blacks don’t even know that blacks ruled the entire world 3 times. Sad.
Adidas knows better I wouldn’t buy anything they made after this.
@ Y’ALL / The VERY IDEA That Adidas stated at the beginniing
of this stupidity, that they WOULD NOTPULL THE SHOE, shows
their NEED FOR GREED In the one hand, and their DISRPECT
FOR BLACK PEOPLE In the Other…..!!! The VERY IDEA THAT
THEY (Adidas) Would put a $350.00 ticket on such GARBAGE:
A PAIR OF SNEAKERS, And Us, like fools, go out and buy this
CHEAPLY Manufactured in sweat houses c**p…!!! WE HAVE
GOT TO DO A BETTER JOB WITH OURSELVES When it comes
to PRIDE, SELF RESPECT, MORALS & Morality, and our HISTORY
of the past 50 to 150 years at the least….!!!1 OUR Young
People DON’T Have a Clue…!!! ….And to think of these young
N!66@$ , Who are already ”OUT COLD”, Walking around
wearing these Crappy Shoes with chain Shackles , and ”THEY”
PANTS HANGIN’ ALL DOWN BELOW THEIR KNEES….!!!! THAT
Is how low we have allowed ourselves to sink to…via .. our
Young people…..What’s worse is thaat they don’t know that
they are clueless….!!! Yet that does NOT excuse Adidas….!!
Does the word BOYCOTT MEAN ANYTHING….??????
D.SMITH……!!!!!!
D.SMITH…..
Eternal vigilance is the price we pay for liberty and self respect….
s**t I wuz wantin me a pair of em shoes..s**t! Makes me think about some good times at county
Jon – nothing even to joke about.
As Moonhead and others wrote, we have totally lost our sense of pride. We aren’t, for the most part, passing down our history – as was done for us.
A sad and disturbing example – one of the news magazine television shows interviewed two black teens about the shoe, asking if they were offended and if they’d wear them. Each, of course, saw nothing wrong with the shoe – thought they were cool – and would buy a pair.
People – grab your children up and RUN to the nearest black bookstore, if you can’t find one – go to the library!!!!! This is the generation that will be responsible for us within the next 10 years. They’ll think the Grand Wizard is a new video game for kids, Step’n Fetchit is a rap group, George Wallace is the comedian and David Duke founded an organization designed to single out and support people of color – especially blacks.
Again I say,RUN, RUN TO A BLACK BOOKSTORE, THE LIBRARY, WHERE EVER SOURCES OF TRUE HISTORY CAN BE FOUND!!!!
We as a race of black people is the most disrespected race without question. The reason why is because we don’t respect our selves!!!
America hates us; we lead all races in virtually every negative category, i.e. new cases of the hiv virus, teen pregnacy, high school dropout rate, children born out of wedlock, male incarceration ration rate, heart disease, single parent households, low life expectancy, on and on and on…. Our most popular genres of music, hip hop and r&b, are filled with mysagonistic rants, praising drug dealing f****** b*****s, killing other black people, getting high, getting drunk, going to after parties etc. Name any other form of music, including hard rock, in which the artists routinely threatening and put down their customers in their songs. Rap artists brag that they have more than you, that their lives are better than yours, and that they will kick your a*s, and take your b***h. Name another race where a large percentage of the people consider it a badge of honor to have been to jail and or prison. Where a large percentage of the race has to hide the fact that they are educated in order to be accepted by the cool ones. When was the last time Garth Brook’s entourage got into a fight in the club with Kenny Chesney’s entourage? When was the last time a member of Metallica was accused of of killing a member of Guns n Roses?
Yes Adidas knew better. Most of white America either hates us or thinks that we’re inferior to them. The police routinely beats and kills us without provocation. We should be p****d about all of the things that I have listed in my rant, not wasting time getting upset about a f****** shoe. This wastes time and diverts our minds and attention from the REAL issues.
WE are quick to get upset when they do anything to hurt our feelings. But we never seem to address the problems that we have inflicted upon ourselves in any meaningful way. Getting adidas to remove a freaking shoe from the market doesn’t help us at all. Let’s get upset with deadbeat black fathers, sorry black mothers, parents who do not participate in the PTA or honor society but will make every football or basketball game, the black males who are raping, killing, and selling drugs to our race, and let’s (as I have ) boycott hip hop and r&b until the industry gets its s**t together. Rap and r&b artist do a lot more damage to us than a freaking shackle shoe ever could. Let’s concentrate on the things that we can actually change. Let’s help ourselves first and stop devoting all of our time and efforts into being mad at white people.
“The creator of this shoe is only tapping into the mentality that persists among many black people. It is a marketing tool…why not use it? Black people are notorious for highlighting the negatives of our turbulent past and present: calling each other Ni**er, treating each other like a white slave master treated African slaves, use of the bible to demonize certain ‘segments’ of the black race/culture and the pervasive acceptance of whitewashed Christianity…” -Muata Nowe
Please continue to read here:
http://muatatruthtelling.blogspot.com/2012/06/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none_20.htm
they wanted to see if the idiots buying this s**t would wear the same things as the people making them.
Some of the ignorant Negros would probably buy these shoes but real black people would not do it. It is absolutely ridiculous and they were making fun of blacks and mocking you and what they did to you. Unfortunately it is so said that Negros know nothing of their history and culture and feel so lowly that they would allow someone to use them as a joke and make money from them.
I bet if they tried to make holocaust shoes that they would have fired this person and apologized profusely.
NO you have the wrong idea adidas doesn’t have a need for greed addias is disrespecting you. They are making fun of the murder, rape, enslavement, and abuse of your ancestors and you.
They are clowning you. They know that some ignorant Negro is going to go and put this c**p on and wear it never thinking about how it is like being spit on and then laughed at.
Something you need to ask yourselves why would a shoe company or Any Company think it is okay to mock slavery. And you better understand how they are viewing you in their minds. It is very bold to mock what was done to black people. Like I wrote in a previous comment they would never do this to Jews and the holocaust.
enriching your masters over something simple and insignificant as shoes. This shows you this company has NO respect for you but how many of you will go to them like the true slaves you are and enrich them even though they would treat their dogs better than you.
Keep letting your kids grow up Enslaved to material things instead of an education and they
will really be in shackles…. Black trash is dragging us back wards 100% miles an hour.
DEE SMITH June 19, 2012 at 9:47 pm
@ Y’ALL / The VERY IDEA That Adidas stated at the beginniing
of this stupidity, that they WOULD NOTPULL THE SHOE, shows
their NEED FOR GREED In the one hand, and their DISRPECT
That’s right! Pull them sneakers out of the market! I tell you, ‘these folks will do anything to constantly squeeze a buck or two out of some of our nescient, non-conscious brothers, who will spend $$ just to say or illustarte that he has something unique on their feet. And just as some to the many of us who have contributed their opinion on this site regarding these sneakers and are upset which brings back memories of post chattle slavery of OUR Ancestors, ‘how about getting discombobulated when you hear some to the many of OUR people using the N-word?
The critics should have raised an outcry over their horrible appearance than bringing in that slavery and racism issue.
I am sure that by now some silly idiots,including the black kids whose dignity you are purporting to be fighting for are hankering after the shoes. so, really,what is the f*cking big deal?