adidas Removes Controversial Black History Month Sneaker

In January, adidas unveiled a limited UltraBOOST Uncaged silhouette in honor of Black History Month titled “Celebrating Black Culture.” The glaring issue was that aside from some inconspicuous colors along the eyelet grommets, the colorway was entirely white, leaving people to question the Three Stripes’ judgement. Commenters on our site and posts across social media called out the inappropriate design, causing adidas to officially remove the shoe from its Black History Month lineup. The company released the following statement in response to the backlash:

“Adidas released a new collection in celebration of Black History Month featuring designs inspired by the Harlem Renaissance. It includes footwear and apparel across a variety of categories. Toward the latter stages of the design process, we added a running shoe to the collection that we later felt did not reflect the spirit or philosophy of how adidas believes we should recognize and honor Black History Month. After careful consideration, we have decided to withdraw the product from the collection.”

Additional footwear from the upcoming adidas BHM collection including the Dame 5, Harden Vol. 3 and Harlem Renaissance-inspired UltraBOOST are still on track to release online and in-stores on Feb. 5.

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