are these shoes racist?

some internet commenters decided that these shoes are racist because of some imagined resemblance to slave shackles. they caused enough of a stink that adidas has cancelled production of the ridiculously expensive shoe, and now their fun has infringed upon my fun.

 note from adidas: The design of the JS Roundhouse Mid is nothing more than the designer Jeremy Scott’s outrageous and unique take on fashion and has nothing to do with slavery. Jeremy Scott is renowned as a designer whose style is quirky and lighthearted and his previous shoe designs for adidas Originals have, for example, included panda heads and Mickey Mouse. Any suggestion that this is linked to slavery is untruthful. via


 for his part, designer jeremy scott says the design is actually inspired by cartoons.