There has been a lot of controversy over the advertisement for Adidas sneakers that was to be released this year. So much controversy that complaints have gone as far as stating that the company is promoting slavery, resulting in Adidas' withdrawal of the sneaker all together.
Bright orange, rubber shackles is the highlighted feature on the high-top sneakers. They're called the JS Roundhouse Mids and were expected to be released in August, according to the Adidas Originals Facebook page. "Got a sneaker game so hot you lock your kicks to your ankles?" a caption below a photo of the sneakers read. The post promoted a lot of criticism from all over the Web and many people felt that the shackles were insensitive and invoked a painful image of slavery.
"I literally froze up when I saw a new design from Adidas set to hit stores in August," Dr. Boyce Watkins said in a post for the website Your Black World.
"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," African-American civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Jackson said, in a statement on CNN on Monday, before Adidas' decision to withdraw them from the marketplace.
Adidas issued a statement saying, "The design of the JS Roundhouse Mid is nothing more than the designer Jeremy Scott's outrageous and unique take on fashion and has nothing to with slavery." They added, "We apologize if people are offended by the design and we are withdrawing our plans to make them available in the marketplace."
Adidas was founded in 1948 and is a German sports clothing manufacturer. The company is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe and the second biggest sportswear manufacturer in the world.
Rev. Jesse Jackson comments on controversial sneakers
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