Who knew sneakers could be considered controversial…Brands today are using social media to take the temperature on how consumers feel about its products before releasing it. And Adidas is sure happy it did that. Adidas introduced on Monday to its Facebook page a new shoe it was planning to roll out in August called, “the JS Roundhouse Mids.”Adidas promoted the shoe lightheartedly by writing, “Tighten up your style with the JS Roundhouse Mids, dropping in August. Got a sneaker game so hot you lock your kicks to your ankles?”
However, Facebook fans were not laughing and were quick to tie the sneaker to slavery and how it was promoting racism. Although the photo received 36,000 likes, it also elicited strong opinions from fans who considered it offensive, inappropriate and ugly. People were already calling for a boycott if the shoes went on sale. In response, Adidas released a statement saying, “Since the shoe debuted on our Facebook page ahead of its market release in August, Adidas has received both favorable and critical feedback. We apologize if people are offended by the design and we are withdrawing our plans to make them available in the marketplace."
By releasing the design on Facebook first, Adidas was able to save itself from having to pay huge production costs to develop a product that would have been pulled later if officially released. By using Facebook, it was also able to get feedback in a cost effective way. This attests to how effective it can be for brands to use social media to test out its products. Social media allows companies to stay in touch with its customer base and allows them to receive prompt feedback which they can then respond to accordingly and in a timely fashion.
http://shine.yahoo.com/fashion/adidas-shackle-sneakers-create-controversy-185000146.html
1 comment:
I heard about these sneakers on the news on Monday. Though they are incredibly ugly, I fail to see the point of how these are racist. Unless, the message is that 'we market our sneakers specifically to African Americans'. Maybe they do?
I do think the concept is entertaining. I try to image some kids in the inner city playing on an outside court with these. It would make a huge statement. You'd have to be quite good to have enough confidence to where these. Sometimes fashion is controversal. Let's see what Adidas comes up with next.
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