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Tuesday, June 19th, 2012 | Posted by Staff

Adidas Shackles ‘Shackles Shoe’

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Shackles Shoe designer, Jeremy Scott.

Following a slew of outrage, Adidas announced late Monday that they are pulling the ‘shackles’ shoe design critics say evokes thoughts of slavery. The lone supporter of the offensive shoe is the York Observer who is calling the uproar a media-manufactured controversy. However, going on record about the shoe, David M. Carter, head of the USC Sports Business Institute, told the Los Angeles Times that the uproar over the shackle sneakers could lead to the design’s demise.

The shoe is the vision of Beverly Hills designer, Jeremy Scott. It has a plastic set of shackles which some say is apt given that more blacks, their target audience is shackled to ‘sneakers’ in that they spend a great amount on designer sneakers. Adidas’ Facebook page had an earlier post: “Got a sneaker game so hot you lock your kicks to your ankles?” This ad slogan failed to hit it’s mark.

The fury and disbelief spread like wild fire, especially online.

Several tweets and retweets labeled the new shoe “Adidas slave shackle kicks.” The designer tweeted that the inspiration of the show came from the 1990s cartoon and toy, My Pet Monster, though most who see the shoe feel it is inspired by slavery and aim at the sneaker demographic, blacks.

There has also been talk of a boycott.

Initially, as early as Monday morning, Adidas defended the shoes as the handiwork of a whimsical designer but the public did not buy it.. and it was clear that no one wanted to buy the shoe. The designer admitted that he made a mistake.

The Adidas statement reads, in part:

“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 do with slavery. Since the shoe debuted on our Facebook page ahead of its market release in August, Adidas has received both favorable and critical feedback. We apologize if people are offended by the design and we are withdrawing our plans to make them available in the marketplace.”

Although the shoe has been pulled, those that stand in line for hours, sometimes nearly rioting before the release of over priced sneakers by any manufacturer or designer are indeed ‘slaves’ to materialism. With our without the shackle, you know who you are. Perhaps that is also why the actual ‘vision’ of the shackle stings so badly!