Shackle shoe yanked by Adidas

Why in the world would anybody think making a sneaker with plastic shackles attached is cool? 

Jeremy Scott did, and Adidas did initially, but when they got caught up in a firestorm of criticism, the company decided to back out of releasing this shoe.

Smart decision…

Brad asked me on the show Monday if the shoes offended me as an African-American, and if it evoked thoughts of slavery when I saw the images of the shoe, and I said yes to both.

When I first saw them on Brad’s computer, I wanted to throw up! It sickened me that much.

I don’t, in my right mind, know why anyone working at Adidas, who saw that shoe in a meeting, or in passing on someone’s desk, thought it was an appropriate shoe to sell to the mainstream public.

What blows my mind is that, if the shoe were released, there probably would’ve been thousands of pairs sold, just because it’s a new design, and lots of kids and adults would want to be the first to rock them.

When I see those stupid shackles, I think of slavery, and it makes me wonder what kind of hell my ancestors went through back in those days while wearing REAL shackles…

Someone actually wanted to make a profit off of this product?

Along with slavery, to me, the shoe and shackles glamorizes criminal behavior and the prison system.

It’s bad enough there are kids out there that embrace the criminal side of life, and think going to prison is actually cool, and a rite of passage, when in actuality, it’s none of that.

What would possess a guy like Scott, who’s thought of as being a bit of a loon in the Beverly Hills design circuit, to even attempt to get this garbage out in the marketplace?

I’m all for people being creative and trying to push out new products on the market, but there’s a clear, clear line that you don’t cross with your product, and Scott and Adidas almost fell over that line into a pit of snakes.

Thank goodness someone at Adidas had the common sense to see what was boiling, and nipped it in the bud.