Slave Sneakers

[skooldem1]

By Lisa Flam

A hurtful symbol of slavery or simply a quirky fashion statement?

Adidas is rebuffing fierce criticism of one of its upcoming original sneaker designs. The JS Roundhouse Mid, a collaboration between Adidas Originals and edgy fashion designer Jeremy Scott and due to be released in August, features a bright orange chain and ankle strap.
The public got its first look at the sneakers when Adidas added a photo of them to the brand's Facebook page on June 14 with the caption: “Got a sneaker game so hot you lock your kicks to your ankles?”


The posting has racked up more than 2,000 comments, with many describing them as offensive, inappropriate, and yes, even ugly.
“What is this, the slavery line?” Christopher Daniels asked in the photo’s comment section.
“Why would you want shackles round your legs that’s just like back in slavery days #sillyidea,” commented Shakira Allen.
“Wearing them you can feel like real prisoner,” wrote Pawel Lisowski.
Aamir Ali also saw a jailhouse connection, writing: “Sorry but I'd rather not look like someone who just broke out of prison.”
While detractors likened the kicks to slave chains and prison shackles, Adidas said the JS Roundhouse Mids are not meant to be a symbol of oppression, and noted that Scott has previously designed creative kicks for Adidas featuring panda bear 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,” a representative for the shoemaker told TODAY.com by email. “Jeremy Scott is renowned as a designer whose style is quirky and lighthearted ... Any suggestion that this is linked to slavery is untruthful.”
Not everyone who commented were offended by the kicks.
“Jeremy always pushes boundaries,” wrote Hanna Lauwers. “Shoes like these just makes it even more obvious that only people with real guts want and would wear them. This has nothing to do with slavery."
And Tola T VMZ wrote: “Not everything with a chain is related to slavery, people.”



http://thelook.today.msnbc.msn.com/_...o-slavery?lite

[tamla617]

dont they wear the same chains in a 1000 prisons.why has it got to be slavery? could it be a slave to fashion? or adidas?
thats just more crap from the pc brigade.a slave in top gear?
could they be having a go at british pow's by the japs?iraqis?germans?boers?french?italians? etc. see?silly isnt it?tooo touchy

dont remember anybody hitting the slave thing with punks who chained that and everything else.

[soulster]

Most people thought of them as "slave sneekers". I first thought of ankle cuffs, like you see on prisoners. Either way, I think it's in poor taste, and only serves to influence the thug culture.

First mop and sponge dolls, and now sneekers with cuffs and chains. The return of racist marketing in this post-President Obama world?

[Jerry Oz]

What's sad is that those cost $350 a pair. By making them controversial and charging that much for a pair of kicks with a cheap plastic chain, they will immediately sell out to a bunch of fashion slaves. Tacky tacky tacky. To make it worse, some dumb kid is going to get shot over a pair of those. They already featured a couple of colored [[why not?) teens on the news and they said that they liked them and wouldn't have a problem buying them. Shaking my head again. And people wonder why I liked Spike Lee's "Bamboozled" as much as I did.

[soulster]

To make it worse, some dumb kid is going to get shot over a pair of those

All the other kids with the pumped-up kicks
You better run, run, run, outrun my gun,
All the other kids with the pumped-up kicks,
You better run, better, run, outrun my bullet!

[milven]

On the TODAY SHOW, they announced that a huge on line back-lash has caused Adidas to pull this and apologize. They say the shoes evoke images of slave shackles

[ralpht]

So stupid..............

[Jerry Oz]

They can put these on the market underground and make a mint off of them. They're worth their weight in gold, now.

[tamla617]

so now anything that "may" look like slaves could have inspired something is out.

i dont know if people are aware but slavery started the day man started walking upright.the britons were slaves the anglo saxons were slaves.the arabs used slaves.slaves arent a black thing unless you say the slaves everyone is thinking of were enslaved by other black tribes.they had slave tribes.so the europeans jumped on an easy route to get a country sorted.its a sad episode in history but its over 100 years ago.the irish are still banging on about the battle of the boyne in 17whenever,the arabs get wound up about the crusades,all of the crusades,there are a few to get wound up about apparently.the argies want an island back that they didnt really want in the 1st place thats 16 something.things move on,has to move on.someone wanted the uk government to appologise for slavery,well dont do it in my name.its a waste of air.the british went out to sea and stopped the slave trade by gunboat diplomacy blockaded ports to prevent slave movements.as i said its a sad part of history fullstop.

[Jerry Oz]

I understand your point tamla, but if the chains and shackles are not a nod to slavery or imprisonment, what are they supposed to reflect? I know many people are oversensitive to many things, but I personally am insulted by these shoes because slavery was a sad part of our history that continues to have social and economic ramifications for African-Americans. I am less concerned with the concept of slavery than I am with this country's history with it.

I guess if adidas comes out with tee shirt designs with nooses around the neck, I shouldn't concern myself with it since lynching is something was more common place a hundred years ago. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

[tamla617]

yeah jerry its all of those and not aimed at anything particular.how about slave to fashion,slave to the logo etc.
and i agree with what you've said but we're all jumping around,or supposed to be,about slaves.
last week we all jumping around about racist football chants at the euro 2012 football championships in poland and ukraine.non of it has really happened,except for the odd racist chant,which you can get anywhere,which should be and is widely condemed.but we have to go bananas everytime.over sensitive?of course it is.but i will add that slavery shouldnt be made as a subject for fashion.which i dont think adidas has aimed at.

[Jerry Oz]

I guess. I'm somewhere in the camp that is bugged by adidas but still confused and embarassed over the "Mary J. Blige soul'd out by doing a fried chicken commercial!" controversy. It's kind of hard to figure out where to draw the line on who insulted you and at what point. I mean, I can eat chicken, but I can't make money promoting it? STFU.

[R. Mark Desjardins]

I just heard on the noon hour news minutes ago that Adidas has withdrawn their plan to market these sneakers. Good call!

[tamla617]

I understand your point tamla, but if the chains and shackles are not a nod to slavery or imprisonment, what are they supposed to reflect? I know many people are oversensitive to many things, but I personally am insulted by these shoes because slavery was a sad part of our history that continues to have social and economic ramifications for African-Americans. I am less concerned with the concept of slavery than I am with this country's history with it.

I guess if adidas comes out with tee shirt designs with nooses around the neck, I shouldn't concern myself with it since lynching is something was more common place a hundred years ago. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

wrangler jeans?they did a tee shirt years ago with that logo around the neck of a tee shirt.you should be a design geezer!and btw nothing was said,because.........it didnt have anything to do with slaves

[tamla617]

jerry oz
quote..those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it
good call about the past/history.that is the subject to read.history does repeat because its about people and people are the same when you get down to basics.regardless of what era,given a set of circumstances the exact same thing will happen.UNLESS you know how to stop it 1st.historians have real power.

[soulster]

I just heard on the noon hour news minutes ago that Adidas has withdrawn their plan to market these sneakers. Good call!

It just makes you wonder what kind of people at Addidas are making these decisions.

[Jerry Oz]

It just makes you wonder what kind of people at Addidas are making these decisions.

The same kind that work at Nike, who decided to market "Black and Tan" sneakers in Northern Ireland.

Black and Tan: Nike apologizes for shoe-naming gaffe

By Rene LynchMarch 13, 2012, 2:22 p.m.


Black and Tan. That's the name used for a new Nike sneaker arriving just in time for St. Patrick's Day; it's also a nod to the popular beer mash-up. Just one problem: Black and Tan is also a term reviled in Ireland, a sneering reference to the British forces accused of mistreating Irish citizens in the 1920s.

In other words, it would be akin, in some circles, to naming a sneaker the Taliban or the Nazi.
Cue today's "sorry" from the athletic shoe giant: "We apologize," Nike said in a statement to Fox News. "No offense was intended."

Nike said the sneaker had been "unofficially named," even though several online retailers and sneaker websites, such as Kicks on Fire, wrote about the shoe using the name Nike SB Dunk Low "Black & Tan" label. Nike acknowledged that the name "can be viewed as inappropriate and insensitive."

To Americans, a "black and tan" usually refers to a creamy stout beer, such as Guinness, stacked atop a pale ale. And no doubt many an American will down one this weekend in honor of St. Patrick's Day, under the mistaken belief that it's a nod to the Irish.

But you might not want to order a black and tan in Ireland.

The Black and Tans, so nicknamed because of their uniforms, were part of a British escalation of violence and brutality against the Irish in the 1920s. The forces are "remembered for brutality" and "a systematic reprisal policy," according to Irish History.
Not all Irish are opposed to a shoe called "Black and Tan," however.

Over at Irish Central, where news of the Nike gaffe was well read, one sly commenter named "hotdubliner" suggested that Nike critics have it all backward:
"I say wear them proudly! The only place a 'Black and Tan' belongs is underfoot! Every time you kick a ball or pound them down by dancing them into the ground, hold that vision of divine retribution finally having its day!"

[144man]

That's the problem when you have a global market. I don't know what Adidas's sales are country by country, but would anyone outside of the USA have even made the slavery connection?

[soulster]

That's the problem when you have a global market. I don't know what Adidas's sales are country by country, but would anyone outside of the USA have even made the slavery connection?

The U.S. wasn't the only western country who engaged in enslaving Africans, but they were the last ones to abolish it, and seemed to be the most brutal about it.

I did not make a slavery connection. I made a prisoner connection, as in jail or prison.

[Jerry Oz]

The U.S. wasn't the only western country who engaged in enslaving Africans, but they were the ones to abolish it, and seemed to be the most brutal about it.

I did not make a slavery connection. I made a prisoner connection, as in jail or prison.

And that was another concern for some of those who complained: too many black men are in the penal system and a company is selling them leg irons as fashion. It wasn't just about slavery when it began to hit the fans.

[soulster]

Thinking about this further, I don't think anyone was thinking about the implications of the design. Someone just probably thought it would be cool to have a chain on the shoes and it needed something to hold it in place. Look how many bikers wear chains on their oversized wallets. No one thinks about slavery or prison with those.

[tamla617]

The U.S. wasn't the only western country who engaged in enslaving Africans, but they were the last ones to abolish it, and seemed to be the most brutal about it.

I did not make a slavery connection. I made a prisoner connection, as in jail or prison.

a very brief history of the british anti slave movement.
the 1807 [[british act of parliament) the slavery trade act outlawed slave trafficking.shortly afterwards the navy sent the west africa squadron to west africa [[!) that was the center of the african slave trade.from 1808 to about the time of the american civil war 1860-65,captured over 1500 slave ships and freed a big lump of 200,000 slaves.
this act of parliament didnt outlaw slaves,just the movement of slaves,the abolition of slavery act 1830 something [[this is from memory btw) abolished slavery in certain countries in the the british empire.the oldest human rights organisation in the world was formed in the late 1830's as the british and foreign anti slavery society [[think thats right) today its called anti slavery international.
a cynic might say [[and could be correct in part) that the british government would do anything to disrupt american trade after the american/british war of 1812 [[where the anthem star spangled banner and the "white" house came from)
but there was a large part of both the british population and members of parliament that did want to get rid of the slave trade and the use of slaves worldwide.

[144man]

Thinking about this further, I don't think anyone was thinking about the implications of the design. Someone just probably thought it would be cool to have a chain on the shoes and it needed something to hold it in place. Look how many bikers wear chains on their oversized wallets. No one thinks about slavery or prison with those.

That's how it seems to me as well.

[tamla617]

punk rockers had more chains chaining more body parts.nobody ever said anything apart from it looked bloody stupid!

[marv2]

What's sad is that those cost $350 a pair. By making them controversial and charging that much for a pair of kicks with a cheap plastic chain, they will immediately sell out to a bunch of fashion slaves. Tacky tacky tacky. To make it worse, some dumb kid is going to get shot over a pair of those. They already featured a couple of colored [[why not?) teens on the news and they said that they liked them and wouldn't have a problem buying them. Shaking my head again. And people wonder why I liked Spike Lee's "Bamboozled" as much as I did.

I agree with your post. The cost and novelty of these sneakers [[which I strongly feel is a bad idea and an offensive one) will potentially create situations where kids will attempt to steal them.