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

I wouldn't necessarily say that they're "offensive", per se, or at least not to me they're not - but I could certainly empathize with someone who felt that way because they had actually been incarcerated and lost years of your life in prison; feeling as if their real life tribulation was being made a mockery of and debased as some hokey, trivial fashion fad. Which is to say nothing of those whose heritage in this country comes from a lineage of ancestors who were brought here by way of Slave ships, Auschwitz, or on a lighter side, boxcar prisoner railroad workers.

In my opinion, what's more concerning than someone simply being offended by this juvenile fashion trend is the fact that the money making conglomerate has once again displayed its irresponsible greedy disregard for the influence this product will have on an already desensitized group of young impressionable minds already at war with a civilized society.

What upsets me is the blatant fact that this so-called "style" only underscores the all too common and widely ignored glorification of gang-bang thug and criminal lifestyles that is marketed to kids (and immature adults) who will actually think wearing these shoes will make them look cool and tough. It's make-believe "Look at me, I'm hardcore" prisoner-wear. Like an orange DOC shirt.

As if they aren't innundated enough with that influence already through television, movies, music, or other media.
(Why do we allow it? The ramifications are obvious.)

Of course, there are those who merely see these shoes as a harmless and silly novelty item, which is probably why I would have bought them myself 20-years ago, but in this post-Tupac/ Biggie Smalls, East Side vs. West Side, Chi-Town hustler South side culture of MTV fed youths, I think the demographic will be primarily young men and women (boys and girls) who idolize a lifestyle which leads to them into a cell and a life behind bars, and/or who are already actively involved in gangs.
After all, this is what their minds are being fed. The Mr. Rogers era is dead and gone.

Have you read about the teen mobs attacking defenseless common folk lately now that the warm summer weather is here again? http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2...

I'll bet it's like-minded adolescents with the same kind of depraved mentality that can somehow justify such random acts of senseless, cowardly violence that we'll see as the primary target market and/or purchasers of these Shackle Shoes.

I hope I'm wrong and they actually think they're stupid... but if you start seeing them on the feet of Hip-Hop/Gangster Rap media darlings and in videos, lock your doors up tight, and be sure to support local "conceal and carry" laws in your area if you intend to go to any summer fests or even take a leisurely walk around the neighborhood some evening.

~V.