Adidas' Shackle Sneakers: Offensive Reference to Slavery, or Just 'Quirky'?

I've no idea why anyone would pay $350 for them

OR even a dollar for them. What country are they made in originally, germany I think. If I am right on that think on what they have in their past.

They probably have the richest and yet darkest history books of their past. The best composers, palaves and gardens to rival Versailles, brilliant military history, some of the most influential literature and films, and yes, Europe's darkest chapter, The Holocaust. Honestly, if you have ever been to Germany you will see that they are the best nation as far as Holocaust remembrance goes. It is a burden that generations who weren't even conceived still must bear. If that is what you were inferring, I'm sorry.

I think they look like prison not slavery with the orange.

If i got these shoes for my kid.. after paying $350 Before taxes...
Then they'd BETTER come shackled to his body! I might even throw on a combo lock just to make sure they don't end up snatched off and hanging off of some cable wire.

Shackles, lo-jack whatever you got! :)

I'm betting they would have trouble producing enough of them. If I hear some under-privillaged individual pout once a week about their great-great-great-great grand daddy being kidnapped by some neighboring African tribe and sold into slavery, I hear it a thousand times. Some wear it like a badge of honor and use it to explain why they have never had a job in their life.
You can bet one of those "pink" crackers will be the very last one to buy a pair should they be produced, but you just know there will be a few.

Your wrong. They will not sell hardly any of them cause of how they are viewed

Ugly.

Some people dye their hair blonde to mask their identity. While other prey on vunlurable culture to hide their weekness. When a so call White person(light pink) abuse their power to exploite another race, no one see anything is workg, however, if the tables are turn how would you feel. YES IT OFFENSIVE but then again this only happen and tollerated in America.

What the hell you talking about? The topic is sneakers. NOT white people or as you like to disparagingly call pink.

Serious question: How do you know stuff like this "only happen[s] and [is] tollerated in America"?

It ONLY happens in America? I guess the enslavement of Blacks and Jews never happened in Egypt, or the Holocaust in Germany.

We were all slaves at one point or another, it doesn't bother me at all.

then you are a fool. we have a group of people in office that want to fit all of use with a real set of these, that means iron not plastics.

Prisoners have to be kept secure.

Best statement yet, in my opinion. We ARE all slaves to our own selfish and sinful nature: the way we think and behave. And the sad part is, it is very difficult to change without help.

That I do concur with, one way or another we're slaving over something. I think I could realistically name a few for myself.

To me, though, they're not really either.

They are just plain stupid! My kids won't get them... Plus the fact that they would never get a pair of sneakers of any brand or style that cost $350.00!

Offensive? I don't know...to some perhaps. I just chose it randomly. Quirky...wtf does that mean anyway? Bottom line, as athletic shoes, these serve no purpose. What was Adidas thinking??? $350??? Idiots...

This would be and entirely different discussion if the marketing campaign even hinted at slavery, but it didn't. It's not as though slavery has a monopoly on the use of shackles. If you are offended by this, it is because you WANT to be offended.



As a side note, these shoes would be a very funny wedding gift. All I'm saying.

LMAO, if everyone wasn't so distracted by the slavery connotation that this topic is sure to be drenched in, the ladies would be letting you have it man!

Visually it hints at slavery, death camps and jail all without saying it in print or word.

That is only because you (and many) associate shackles with those topics. I'm not saying that it is an invalid association, all I am saying is that you can't hold someone else responsible for you being offended because of YOUR personal associations. The image would either have to be far more direct, like placing indicators on the shackles that could only be associated with slavery or death camps, or there would have to be even the slightest hint at those topics in the marketing campaign for it to be inherently offensive.

If I wore a plain brown button up shirt and you were offended because it reminded you of the SS, the Nazis, and the holocaust, that would be YOUR problem, and I by no means should apologize or take any action to make you more comfortable simply because of the associations YOU made when there was no distinct indication or markings that corroborated the association. These shoes represent a similar situation, where there is one aspect that, while, unusual, unique, or quirky, makes you think of things you find offensive without there being any other indicators that would suggest that the designer or wearer intended for you to make those associations or was purposely trying to offend you and induce a response of shock or outrage.

Best they didn't, those shoes are ugly and I doubt they would have done well, but far from offensive.

Really...they are offensive....but they only offend the eyes and the senses.

Jesse Jackson? He needs to retire and become a deaf mute parapalegic. That would fix that problem. He chimes up every time some white guy says "black" in the wrong context. He's not a reverend, he's not religious, and he doesn't respect liberty.

But I digress.

The shoes are just stupid.

Sharpton, Jackson, obama and all those that said if you didn't vote for obama you were racist ARE the ones that are really racists. Makes me mad every time those two faced idiots open their mouths. And the very sad think is they hide behind not only color but they call themselves pastors, not.

You can't please everyone. Just don't buy them if they offend you. I am so over all this bias

Not only are the sneakers offensive, but the $350 price tag is too!!!

I wouldn't call them offensive, just really stupid. The shoes look great already without the shackles. Just take those off, then you've got something.

Not a good look. To digestive of slavery.

wear what you want, but people need to stop over thinking these things.

This is such a no brainer, they should have never been made for the the things they DO suggest. There are some things that just are and things that just should not be done EVER and its because of what they represent. We do not have to change for them THEY should have the common sense and moral judgement to have not even let a drawing of them be made.

that is actually a really good point

Can we please stop overthinking everything?

They kinda look cool...

If they are trying to get us used to being in on the "Chain Gang" sure .... But I think that they are just trying to get across the wrong message

I can see how non african americans would see this as quirky.... this is one of the reasons why corporations need diversity in their board rooms. they have to know a significant amount of black people buy sneakers.I would be willing to bet the decision makers for this company are all middle aged white men.

The Blacks were not the only ones to be placed in slavery. Every race has been in the shackles to another, figurative and literal