Whitlock: Adidas' shackle shoes were an attempt to capitalize on prison culture - NBA News | FOX Sports on MSN

 

The outraged, well-intentioned critics of Adidas’ initial decision to launch the “JS Roundhouse Mids” are upset about the wrong thing. They think the shackled shoes are connected to America’s despicable history of African-American slavery. They’re wrong. The shoes are an attempt to capitalize off America’s despicable drug war and subsequent mass incarceration of minority men of color.

Nothing could be more obvious.

Adidas wants to ride the wave of prison/hip-hop culture. The inner-city tastemakers who made Air Jordans a juggernaut brand in the 1980s and 1990s now mostly languish in prisons and graveyards. The key to controlling the gym-shoe market has always been controlling the inner city. Urban youth have been robbing and shooting each other over Air Jordans for nearly 30 years now. More than a decade after his retirement, the release of Michael Jordan’s latest shoe still sets off rioting and chaos among poor black youths.

OK. Correct me if I'm wrong. It's a basketball shoe. Most NBA players are black. There are shackles on the shoe. I don't think it's a stretch to connect the dots. Am I personally offended by them? yes, because of their sheer ugliness. Not because of anything else. However, I can understand the connection. But I wish we could get past all of that garbage. I know that's a pipe dream. We can't boycott cotton because slaves used to pick it. Jews can't boycott cabbage because it's used in sauerkraut. I can't boycott wigs because my hair fell out. Let's boycott these shoes because they are hideous on their own merit alone. I'm not trying to do my best MLK either, and I can't possibly understand the racial issues that black folk have had to deal with. But doesn't little junk like this perpetuate it? I wish we knew who designed this shoe. Serious question, would we think differently if a black man designed them?

 

If a black man designed the shoe I don't know if the outrage would be similar but that black man would be ridiculed by the same black people that are upset now. I can hear Bill Cosby now.....

If a black man designed the shoe I don't know if the outrage would be similar but that black man would be ridiculed by the same black people that are upset now. I can hear Bill Cosby now.....

I get that. If Adidas wanted to appeal to the genre that bugatti's post outlined, why couldn't they have gone with the Adidas symbol on an orange jumpsuit? There's some marketing genius.

While I love a good argument I do want to point out that in this particular situation all I was attempting to do was explain why some black people would be upset by the shoes. People didn't understand why so I tried to explain why. So in this particular situation I am innocent of the charges levied against me. Word.

 

But you were arguing. So actually, you are guilty!

 

:lol:

 

The only point im trying to make is that I think the outrage over these shoes is silly. Be mad because they are ugly as sin and cost $350...isn't that enough?

But you were arguing. So actually, you are guilty!

 

:lol:

 

The only point im trying to make is that I think the outrage over these shoes is silly. Be mad because they are ugly as sin and cost $350...isn't that enough?

 

It doesn't count as an argument if I am in agreement with you. :lol: I was just trying to tell you why black people might get upset. I can't help it if you don't listen or understand. :lol:

It doesn't count as an argument if I am in agreement with you. :lol: I was just trying to tell you why black people might get upset. I can't help it if you don't listen or understand. :lol:

 

He likes the Giants and the Braves. He ain't gonna listen or understand.:lol:

 

He likes the Giants and the Braves. He ain't gonna listen or understand.:lol:

 

You know it. Go G-Men...

I say we find out who designed them so we can kick his butt for designing one of the ugliest shoes ever.