Adidas has decided not to sell a new sneaker design from collaborator Jeremy Scott after a flood of criticism and controversy over the shoes.
The shoes, which feature orange plastic shackles, hit the company's Facebook page with the accompanying caption: “Got a sneaker game so hot you lock your kicks to your ankles?”
The posting quickly picked up comments from fans, but also detractors who called the sneakers --- officially known as JS Roundhouse Mids -- everything from ugly to offensive.
Adidas released a statement saying it won't be making the shoes available for sale:
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 and 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 in the marketplace.
It's could also be a case of bad timing for the sneaker company.
One popular Twitter user wrote: "Harriet Tubman didn’t wade in the water so Juneteenth could exist for Adidas to make these sneakers."
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Today is Juneteenth, a holiday celebrated by many African Americans to mark the end of slavery in the United States.
Reactions, predictably, have been mixed on Twitter.
[View the story "Adidas \"Shackle\" Sneakers Reactions" on Storify]
