Adidas: Slave to Fashion

Upon seeing the new Adidas trainers on Facebook earlier this week I wanted to think that this is more about glorifying prisonwear than making fashion out of slavery... because surely no company would ever do something like that!

The tragedy is that people will buy them if they are not recalled, which thankfully in the name of common sense they have been. People would have bought them either to be offensive and controversial, or because they want to be one of the first or few to own them regardless of any less than wholesome connotations, perhaps unaware that they are demonstrating, as the company might try to argue was their intention, that they are slaves to fashion.

Just to counter this argument the phrase 'slave to fashion' when associated with shackles makes the link between the shackles on the trainers to the shackles worn by black slaves, and suggests that Adidas have tried to make a fashion statement out of 400 years of abuse of a people which still has a negative impact in contemporary society. It's inexcusable.

I imagine that as Adidas consider their press statement they are realising that there is no justifiable reason for coming out with such an item. Why they didn't think of this beforehand I don't know. Perhaps they did. Perhaps the aim was to create a furore in the media, since bad press is better than no press at all...

I am reluctant to express my 'outrage' or 'shock' at these items, because there is plenty of that around already and it can distract people from the argument at the root of the emotive response. What saddens me is that yet again a company has released something showing a disregard of a section of society and I wonder whether it's because many of us stop at talking about it. Like it or not money talks. How many of us would be willing to boycott a company long term, perhaps at our own inconvenience, in order to make their feelings about it's advertising, products or practices felt where it counts - on the balance sheets? This is what companies understand and take most notice of.

As many of these multinational companies consider the risk involved in a product or practice they seem to count as low risk any backlash from a large section of their consumer base. Is it time for words to turn to action? Many people do act, but it seems that many more don't. I'm not calling for burning of Adidas ranges in the streets, just suggesting conscientious buying from the product maker and companies that stock the items in question. It's also vital to simultaneously ensure that consumers understand that our reaction goes beyond the knee jerk and taking of offense, but has a deeper root. In this case it's the trivialising of the suffering of many in the name of fashion and profit. Otherwise when emotions fade nothing much changes and in a few months time another insensitive and ill conceived product will be hitting the headlines, and over the years fewer people will be able to successfully articulate the reasons to stand against it.

Boma Oruwari, OBV Lewisham Civic Leadership Programme Graduate