Adidas has come under fire for creating a pair of trainers with “shackles”.
Critics have compared the “JS Roundhouse Mids”, to be released in August, to the chains worn by black slaves in the 19th century.
The firm unveiled the trainers on its Facebook page. They feature plastic orange “shackles” attached to the ankles by chains in the same colour.
The seemingly innocent promotional material, uploaded to Facebook earlier this month, asks: “Got a sneaker game so hot you lock your kicks to your ankles?”
But the shoes have sparked angry debate online. More than 2 000 people have labelled the design “offensive” and “ignorant”, and say the firm has “sunk to new lows” in its “slavewear” product.
According to Mail Online, Dr Boyce Watkins, writing for Your Black World, said: “Shackles. The stuff that our ancestors wore for 400 years while experiencing the most horrific atrocities imaginable.
“Most of which were never documented in the history books and kept away from you in the educational system, all so you’d be willing to put shackles on your ankles today and not be so sensitive about it.”
The professor at Syracuse University said he accepted some people would accuse him of overreacting. But he added: “There is always a group of negroes who are more than happy to resubmit themselves to slavery. I’m offended by these shoes as there is nothing funny about the prison-industrial complex, the most genocidal thing to happen to the black family since slavery itself.”
Others have likened the shoes’ orange “bracelets” to the shackles worn by prisoners across the US, or said the firm is “promoting slavery”.
One, “Kay Tee”, said: “It’s offensive and inappropriate in many ways…How would a Jewish person feel if they decided to have a shoe with a swastika on it and tried to claim it was OK in the name of fashion?”
Adidas has not yet commented. - Daily Mail