Poll: Adidas Slave Shoes

[Adam Galli]

http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20120619/PC16/120619040/after-slavery-controversy-adidas-pulls-shackles-shoe

I didn't see anything posted about this but adidas made a pair of shoes which came with a pair of shackles many people found the idea offensive and related the shoes to the shackles of slavery. Personally, I don't think they're offensive but I do think they're stupid.

Any thoughts? Do you find them offensive?

 

[GistoftheFist]

Why the hell would you want those plastic shackles on them anyway? They'd get caught in your pantlegs and rattle all the time making you noisy. Remove those pointless things and they're fine.

 

[Wadders]

They are fucking grotesque.

Never mind the connotations of slavery, you should be locked up for thinking that they are in any way nice or wearable.

Adidas make some nice stuff, but then they go and make something like that. I mean, why?

fashion police, over and out.

captcha: 'marry me' okaaay...

 

[Sean Hollyman]

They look uncomfortable and inconvenient.

Basically, SHIT.

 

[Smeatza]

I can't believe it's actually reached this point.
Where hip hop culture (and therefore it's clothes) has become so clueless, so vacuous, that it's forgotten about the slave trade?

I hope I'm wrong, I hope that their design and marketing was nothing to do with hip hop or it's culture (Adidas are certainly claiming so).
I'm not confident though.

 

[Adam Galli]

I can't believe it's actually reached this point.
Where hip hop culture (and therefore it's clothes) has become so clueless, so vacuous, that it's forgotten about the slave trade?

I hope I'm wrong, I hope that their design and marketing was nothing to do with hip hop or it's culture (Adidas are certainly claiming so).
I'm not confident though.

apparently the desing was based on my pet monster from the 80s

 

[ResonanceSD]

I can't believe it's actually reached this point.
Where hip hop culture (and therefore it's clothes) has become so clueless, so vacuous, that it's forgotten about the slave trade?

Maybe you can tell us what the point is of endlessly dragging on and on about a very small event that occurred centuries ago and which nobody alive today has witnessed?

And yes, very fucking small, because there's much bigger historical events with a much larger impact today, like the First World War.

I'm with Daedalus here. Because trivialising this sort of thing brings it closer to being acceptable. I'm not sure how you can't understand this.

 

[Esotera]

I want to see someone wearing a pair of these at the top of some stairs so I can switch the shackles to cross each legs, and then the person wearing them dies in the fall and humanity is pure once again.

I think it's pretty brave of Addidas to make something like this considering they've probably been made in a sweatshop. The shoes aren't that offensive to me in connotations, they're just offensive in their god-awful style.

 

[Goofguy]

Those just looks stupid. So it supposed to be some kind of statement? Like how we're shackled to the latest and greatest in merchandising? How we're slaves to capitalism?

Regardless of the message (fashion or society), they look really terrible.

 

[yeti585]

I don't see what is so offensive about it. Maybe Adidas was going to make the shoe's commercial say something like "A slave to the game". Other then the mention of slavery that wouldn't even be offensive, but then again slavery is offensive because anyone can be enslaved.

 

[Pinkamena]

Not at all, but you'd look like a fucking tool if you wore them!

 

[Smeatza]

apparently the desing was based on my pet monster from the 80s

Ah, the pictures I looked up didn't have the shackles.
Seeing this picture I can relax, it's not as bad as I thought.
Still a little ignorant though.

Maybe you can tell us what the point is of endlessly dragging on and on about a very small event that occurred centuries ago and which nobody alive today has witnessed?

And yes, very fucking small, because there's much bigger historical events with a much larger impact today, like the First World War.

I do not currently have the patience to explain the issues with modern hip hop culture, and how it has become out of touch and even downright destructive towards equal rights movements for African Americans.

Also, whether you like to admit it or not, the slave trade and the civil rights struggles that followed are the single most important events in the history of the USA, perhaps even the world.
I would argue that they were much more significant than WW1 especially to the USA.
You certainly can not consider it "a very small event."

 

[BathorysGraveland]

Lol, no they aren't offensive. They look far too cheesy and silly to be offensive.

 

[Adam Galli]

I do not currently have the patience to explain the issues with modern hip hop culture, and how it has become out of touch and even downright destructive towards equal rights movements for African Americans.

Also, whether you like to admit it or not, the slave trade and the civil rights struggles that followed are the single most important events in the history of the USA, perhaps even the world.
I would argue that they were much more significant than WW1 especially to the USA.
You certainly can not consider it "a very small event."

I can't agree with you more on this one. Living near Detroit I get to see a lot of faux gansters that are more concerned with buying $300 shoes than the city they live in.

 

[Dags90]

I don't see what is so offensive about it. Maybe Adidas was going to make the shoe's commercial say something like "A slave to the game". Other then the mention of slavery that wouldn't even be offensive, but then again slavery is offensive because anyone can be enslaved.

Some might draw parallels with slavery and the ubiquitous poor working conditions of retail clothing makers.[footnote]http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2000/nov/19/jasonburke.theobserver[/footnote]

They're also just offensively ugly.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

It's so chavs with an ASBO can cover their police tags

 

[yeti585]

I don't see what is so offensive about it. Maybe Adidas was going to make the shoe's commercial say something like "A slave to the game". Other then the mention of slavery that wouldn't even be offensive, but then again slavery is offensive because anyone can be enslaved.

Some might draw parallels with slavery and the ubiquitous poor working conditions of most shoe makers.

"B-but... but that's Nike!" No, just kidding. But, does the fault lay in the pen or the ear?

They're also just offensively ugly.

They might look good in another color. For example, nonexistent?

 

[Smeatza]

Also, whether you like to admit it or not, the slave trade and the civil rights struggles that followed are the single most important events in the history of the USA, perhaps even the world.

You have no rational reason to say that at all. Many events were much bigger, for the US, but especially for the world.

The highest, likely heavily exagerated estimate, is 12 million people across 3 centuries. Stalin's reign alone is said to have claimed well over 20 million lives. The Second World War claimed 62 to 79 million lives in just five years.

The Iraqi civil war for instance has claimed well over 2,5 million lives in just a few years, and causing millions to flee, with a much greater demographic impact.


The only reason you hear so much of this is because some black people in the US are horrible self-absorbed and completely ignorant about any event current, past or future outside of their town, state and especially country.

I'd say they need to get over themselves and get a life.

And yet the persecution and genocide of Jews is often considered to be the most important thing about WW2, in spite of the fact that comparitively less lives were lost compared to, lets' say, the Russians.

Okay, perhaps it was an exaggeration to say they were the most important events in history. But they were definitely some of the most important events, and certainly a contender for the most important events in the history of the USA.

The immediate effects of the slave trade and the subsequent persecution of African-Americans is still felt by millions today, in the USA, where this potentially inappropriate product was being marketed.

I don't think it's really possible to rank atrocities by importance, but the enslavement and persecution of Africans is certainly more relevant to the USA than Stalin or Hitler's genocides.

 

[Rawne1980]

Depends on what you mean by offensive.

Offensive in regards to slavery? Nope, we haven't seen slavery for a damned long time and being from the UK it's not exactly a huge topic anyway.

Offensive to the eyes? Indeed they are.

 

[Dragonclaw]

I don't think they are nearly as offensive as they are stupid looking.