Poll: Adidas Slave Shoes

[AT God]

I clicked this link thinking it would be about the whole sweatshop children labor thing, people can wear what ever stupid shoes they want, I wouldn't buy them but I wouldn't care if I saw someone wearing them. Shackles as a restraint weren't invented for slavery so it seems unfair to say that they are in reference to slavery, those style shackles are still in use today so it seems more like some kind of new age commentary on oppression or more logically simply a way for people who aren't in prison to immitate what they think makes people in prison so facinating and bad ass.

 

[Rumpsteak]

No, not at all. To avoid this becoming quite lengthy I'll just got for what seems to be the main point. The design was said to stir up images of slavery, that isn't what I saw until the idea was laid out before me. I saw more of an imprisoned vibe than slavery and no, they are not the same thing. While I view the shoes as being undoubtedly tacky I can see that the base concept that I first got would fit into at least one area of popular culture today.

 

[Dango]

Sounds like a lot of people really have nothing to do. I mean, if you've got time to feel offended by something that trivial...

You say that as if being offended takes a lot of energy.

But no, offensive is the wrong word, it's more like tasteless.

 

[EHKOS]

What? NO! It's symbolic, and pretty cool. Slavery is over people, care to move on?

 

[Humble Grapefruit]

Unfortunately, as ridiculous as they are, people will still buy them and take them seriously.

 

[ScaryAlmond]

Whether it is offensive or not all depends on context personally I don't know their business practices but say they pulled a Nike and basically did use human slavery it would be incredibly offensive.
on the other hand if say someone else specifically designed this to represent their view of being a slave of political social or economic standards ie bank loans, indefinite detentions
There are too many variable to consider it could be a political statement or it could be a bad PR stunt either way I don't really care.

 

[Johann610]

Is it odd that I equate those cuffs to "My Pet Monster?" Real shackles would be silver-ish, or black. These are cartoony. http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Pet-Monster-The-Complete-Series/10615

 

[Palademon]

I'm going to hell for thinking they look kinda cool, aren't I?

 

[Adam Galli]

Is it odd that I equate those cuffs to "My Pet Monster?" Real shackles would be silver-ish, or black. These are cartoony. http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Pet-Monster-The-Complete-Series/10615

That's where the design came from in the first place.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

I find it offensive for unrelated reasons.

https://www.oxfam.org.au/explore/workers-rights/adidas

As dry and downplayed as that link is, Adidas HAS been caught in child labor scandals in the past, and it made me pretty ticked to see these shoes with that in mind.

This here... same point of view as me. I didn't quite grab the "slavery" tone of these shoes, but I definitely thought of child labour and Chinese/Taiwanese sweat shops.

Regardless of the source, these are in poor taste. Not to mention they are offensive to my eyeballs.

 

[Padwolf]

I don't find them offensive, but they are very ugly shoes.

 

[Elate]

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.

Completely disagree, trivializing it makes it more acceptable in terms of not being such a social taboo to talk about. If everyone keeps being scared to even talk about it least they be considered racist, then it'll continue to have such a massive impact and we will never achieve equality.

But no, this just seems like a really stupid design decision, and an ugly pair of shoe's, nothing more. Honestly, when I saw it, chained black people was not what I thought. I thought of the slave children who make the damn things, and laughed my ass off at how they didn't pick this up before they were produced.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Anyone who finds them offensive has issues......

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

The only offensive thing about these shoes is how stupid they look. It's a terrible design. And the colors. Jesus Christ.