Adidas Releases New “Orange Shackle Sneakers”; Forced to Pull Shoes Before They Hit Stores

Someone over in the design department for Adidas must have had a long night and a few drinks when they came up with the idea to feature a pair of shackles on their newest sneaker design.  The shackle, naturally, would attach itself to the consumers ankle similar to that of a slave or someone who may be incarcerated.

After the release announcement hit the news, consumers from all over responded in outrage suggesting that the shackles on the shoes promoted slavery and was extremely insensitive and racist to say the least.

The announcement for the release of the new JS Roundhouse Mids sneaker was made via Facebook with a caption tag that read “Got a sneaker game so hot you lock your kicks to your ankles?”.  The designer of these sneakers, Jeremy Scott, states via his twitter that these shoes were actually inspired by the 1980’s doll, My Pet Monster.

After receiving backlash regarding the shackled sneakers, a representative for Adidas released the following statement:

“Our collaboration with Jeremy Scott has always stood for creativity and originality. Jeremy Scott is renowned as a designer whose style is quirky and lighthearted & his previous shoe designs for adidas Originals have, for example, included panda heads and Mickey Mouse. 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 to the marketplace.”

While I do believe that the design is rather tacky and unattractive, I would not be so quick to judge to the assumption that these were made or designed to be malicious or “racist”.

How do you feel about the sneakers?

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