Adidas Starts Selling Soviet-Themed Clothes, Regrets It After Seeing Internet’s Reaction
“‘Creating the New‘ is the headline for our next five-year strategic business plan,” Adidas states. However, with this clothing line, the company has decided to focus on the past rather than the future. Recently, it introduced a Soviet Union-themed jersey, mash-up jersey, layer tee, and tank dress. The USSR designs have sparked such an outrage, and it even reached a diplomatic level.
Twitter users sarcastically suggested that Adidas should create an entire line of totalitarian attire options. An online petition called it “disgusting and unacceptable,” demanding that Adidas remove all apparel with Soviet Russia symbols from its stores. The Strategic Communication Group of the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted, “Being sick with ‘imperial nostalgia’ – it still occurs. A bit surprising from the famous @adidas, though.” And Latvian member of the European Parliament, Artis Pabriks, pointed out: “Adidas is preparing for football in Russia by producing clothing with USSR symbols. Would they do it with NAZI symbols as well?”
The post-Soviet states are still recovering from the scars inflicted by the communist regime. For example, Holodomor, the famine-genocide of Ukraine, took about 4 million lives within the borders of Soviet Ukraine between 1932-1934. Also, approximately 600,000 people were deported from the Soviet-occupied Baltic States – Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. There were some 10 million inhabitants in the area on the eve of the Soviet occupation, so to put it into perspective, the number of Baltic prisoners would have been equal to a loss of 20 million people in the United States or 5 million in Great Britain.
To backtrack, in 2008 Herbert Hainer, CEO and Chairman of Adidas AG, said “We are well-positioned with all our Adidas Russian brands. The Adidas Group is growing so fast in this large country that it is already one of our most important markets in Europe with the potential to claim the top spot by 2010.”
Over the years, the Russia/CIS had continuously met or exceeded company expectations and was one of the most important markets for the Adidas Group. For the five years before 2013, the market was growing 30% to 100% a year. But the situation changed dramatically. In 2014, the Russian economy was in a tailspin due to a sharp decline in oil prices, a weak ruble, the political fallout from the forceful annexation of Crimea, Western sanctions, and inflationary pressures. A year later, the company announced it would close 200 sports clothing shops across Russia because of the poor economic situation in the country and shrinking sales. Was this Adidas USSR-themed clothing line an attempt to revive the market? Or a venture to maximize Adidas’ appeal during the 2018 FIFA World Cup?
Accused of historical insensitivity, the retailer announced it plans to stop selling Adidas Soviet Union dedicated sportswear. As of this article, however, it is still available for purchase.
One of the most recent Adidas clothing lines has gotten a lot of attention
For the peculiar symbols it uses
The clothes are paying homage to the Soviet Union, a regime that is responsible for some of the biggest crimes against humanity
For example, the Famine-Genocide in Soviet Ukraine took about 4 million lives Also and approximately 600,000 people were deported from the Soviet-occupied Baltic States
The post-Soviet states are still recovering after the collapse of the USSR less than 30 years ago
So seeing a major brand selling these clothes instantly sparked fierce reactions
Including one from the Strategic Communication Group of the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
And a lot of others
Some people are still leaving comments on the official Adidas website
Since receiving backlash the brand has announced it will be pulling of the offensive line. However, the clothes still can be bought on their website
And people wonder why young people are insensitive to crimes of the past. This is the same mentality that allows college students to think it's acceptable to dress up like nazi soldiers or clansmen for Halloween. It happened a long time ago so...
There is no comparison between communism and nazism. Everyone knows that nazism is racist and genocidal per ideology, whereas communism is against the rich. No one is born of the "rich race", communism is against inequality between people. As for the alleged crimes of the USSR, many of these simply did not occured or were completely exaggerated. France, England, Belgium and several European countries have done MUCH worse with their colonies in Africa and Asia, but no one remembers this.
Load More Replies...I'm sorry this is ridiculous. You think the US or UK haven't committed massive atrocities against humankind???? In Ww2 Churchill's policies about hoarding food from India lead to the death/starvation of over 6 million people. History remembers him as a hero but Hitler and Stalin are villains. The truth is that all major governments are ba****ds, but if you win you can hide all your s**t and if you lose then all the history books will be written by your enemies.
So to you, there's no difference between kicking a puppy and setting it on fire, is there? I'm not a fan of Winston Churchill, but comparing him to Stalin and Hitler is both stupid and tone deaf, because is incredibly disrespectful to all the victims of both Communism and Nazism. Sure, Bengal famine of 1943, which killed an estimated 1.5-2 million people (and certainly not 6), could have been avoided if the right decisions were taken, but in the end the main cause was a typhoon which spoiled crops, coupled with an incredibly poor relief effort, in the context of a world war in which the Axis were sinking allied shipping which meant it was close to impossible to bring stuff from overseas. And if you want to blame anyone, blame the people who were there like the Governor of Bengal, the Viceroy, the Secretary of State for India, etc. Besides, claiming a disaster bought about by incompetence is the same as the systematic extermination of millions of people is just ...arseholeish.
Load More Replies...Good thing the USSR was one of the most anti-imperialist world powers in history.
Load More Replies...Adidas is just responding to their consumers in another market. The brand is much more popular in Russia than in the west, and right now there is a substantial amount of nostalgia for the Soviet Union days in young and old alike. If you don't like the shirt, don't buy it. Vote with your wallet.
In Russia fake Adidas outsells any products of real Adidas..
Load More Replies...Fun fact... "Holodomor" was dismissed as a hoax in the US and international press at the time because the primary source was put on trial in the UK and found guilty of several charges of fraud. It's only recently reentered the zeitgeist as a "known fact" and it's utter b******t. There was food rationing because despite being able to kill people thousands of miles away by snapping his fingers in a time when it took months to get a message across Russia Stalin still wasn't powerful enough of an "authoritarian" to control the f*****g rain.
I would happily buy USSR merchandise. You post-Soviet states whining about Soviet "occupation" are a bunch of Nazi apologists.
But selling clothes with the american and british flag is called fashion lmao 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻 f**k all of yall retards seriously, no wonder the majority of the world laughs about america and europe. and taking twitter comments from salty ukro nazis and lithuanians who have fought side by side with hitler germany during ww2 is just as laughable as those r******d comments made by these fascists. f**k your article bro, and f**k all of you triggered nazis if you see this flag which has saved the world from speaking german. ungrateful little bastards, since stalin was so "evil" as some say, he should have killed all of those people's grandparents and parents of those who are getting triggered by it, so i would not read such b******t today. again, f**k all of you ungrateful bastards. russia should really nuke those places and wipe this scum from the planet 😂🖕🏻🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
Lmao this is the biggest laughable s**t o have ever read in my entire life. This article contains so much made up garbage it hurts bro it f*****g hurts. and the twitter comments lmao i am dead dont get me started on those r******d twitter comments made up by salty ukro fascists and eastern europeans who got so "offended" with these line because they have lived "through horrible horrible times" lmaooo dude i am dead 😂😂😂😂 r******d a*s people, adidas should produce some clothes to trigger even more retards from the east and from that shithole called ukraine which was not even a f*****g country before. it would be funny to see more triggered morons
There is no comparison between communism and nazism. Everyone knows that nazism is racist and genocidal per ideology, whereas communism is against the rich. No one is born of the "rich race", communism is against inequality between people. As for the alleged crimes of the USSR, many of these simply did not occured or were completely exaggerated. France, England, Belgium and several European countries have done MUCH worse with their colonies in Africa and Asia, but no one remembers this.
Save the world, get blamed for it. :D Never read so much sheepcrap in on article.
So I have a question. Is it the full emblem or just the hammer and sickle part that makes it bad? If it were the Superman Red Son emblem would it still be bad?
One movement ask for better conditions for workers equality and are against any form of racism other ask for world domination by extermination of any body that isn't white but for internet they are the same ....
"One movement ask for better conditions for workers equality" - tell that to all victims of communism.
Load More Replies...Probably not everybody in Germany knows that the USSR does not exist any more. They even might wonder why the Karlshorst Vodka Mall is still closed.
There was a special offer in my country: Tell a joke about the dictator and you receive a 5 year-long invitation to a spa where the guards will massage you with their boots every day and you lose 50% of your body weight.
The Russian market is a large one. They are clearly prioritizing that but I bet they have alienated enough customers from other countries to outweigh the benefit. Not a well thought out move.
holodomor was not genocide but horrendous mismanagement by an incompetent leadership. in any case, to put things into perspective,... Churchill wilfully let 3-4 million Bengalis starve to death during the Bengali famine of 1943.
Holodomor was genocide. The Ukrainians resisted Stalin's collectivisation and he wilfully let them starve by denying them access to food supplies creating a situation not unlike that suffered by those trapped in the Warsaw Ghetto in the latter stages of the war.
Load More Replies...yo wtf adidas. I thought that it was joke but they actually made this? goddamnit. stalin is arguably the biggest mass murderer in history (it's possible mao killed more)
Back in the USSR was written as a parody of a Beach Boys songs and was made, in a way, for fans from the USSR and NOT glamorizing the emotionless standardization of communist ideology like this is. I don't know what genius from Adidas thought this was a good idea, but its completely tone-deaf and tasteless. This is practically pandering to all the freshman sociology 101 idiots who idolize Che Guevara or any other murderous thug from history.
Load More Replies...1. There is a difference between communist and socialist. 2. Many millennials are Democrats, Republicans, and other parties. They aren't just socialists, and that's not even the majority.
Load More Replies...And people wonder why young people are insensitive to crimes of the past. This is the same mentality that allows college students to think it's acceptable to dress up like nazi soldiers or clansmen for Halloween. It happened a long time ago so...
There is no comparison between communism and nazism. Everyone knows that nazism is racist and genocidal per ideology, whereas communism is against the rich. No one is born of the "rich race", communism is against inequality between people. As for the alleged crimes of the USSR, many of these simply did not occured or were completely exaggerated. France, England, Belgium and several European countries have done MUCH worse with their colonies in Africa and Asia, but no one remembers this.
Load More Replies...I'm sorry this is ridiculous. You think the US or UK haven't committed massive atrocities against humankind???? In Ww2 Churchill's policies about hoarding food from India lead to the death/starvation of over 6 million people. History remembers him as a hero but Hitler and Stalin are villains. The truth is that all major governments are ba****ds, but if you win you can hide all your s**t and if you lose then all the history books will be written by your enemies.
So to you, there's no difference between kicking a puppy and setting it on fire, is there? I'm not a fan of Winston Churchill, but comparing him to Stalin and Hitler is both stupid and tone deaf, because is incredibly disrespectful to all the victims of both Communism and Nazism. Sure, Bengal famine of 1943, which killed an estimated 1.5-2 million people (and certainly not 6), could have been avoided if the right decisions were taken, but in the end the main cause was a typhoon which spoiled crops, coupled with an incredibly poor relief effort, in the context of a world war in which the Axis were sinking allied shipping which meant it was close to impossible to bring stuff from overseas. And if you want to blame anyone, blame the people who were there like the Governor of Bengal, the Viceroy, the Secretary of State for India, etc. Besides, claiming a disaster bought about by incompetence is the same as the systematic extermination of millions of people is just ...arseholeish.
Load More Replies...Good thing the USSR was one of the most anti-imperialist world powers in history.
Load More Replies...Adidas is just responding to their consumers in another market. The brand is much more popular in Russia than in the west, and right now there is a substantial amount of nostalgia for the Soviet Union days in young and old alike. If you don't like the shirt, don't buy it. Vote with your wallet.
In Russia fake Adidas outsells any products of real Adidas..
Load More Replies...Fun fact... "Holodomor" was dismissed as a hoax in the US and international press at the time because the primary source was put on trial in the UK and found guilty of several charges of fraud. It's only recently reentered the zeitgeist as a "known fact" and it's utter b******t. There was food rationing because despite being able to kill people thousands of miles away by snapping his fingers in a time when it took months to get a message across Russia Stalin still wasn't powerful enough of an "authoritarian" to control the f*****g rain.
I would happily buy USSR merchandise. You post-Soviet states whining about Soviet "occupation" are a bunch of Nazi apologists.
But selling clothes with the american and british flag is called fashion lmao 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻 f**k all of yall retards seriously, no wonder the majority of the world laughs about america and europe. and taking twitter comments from salty ukro nazis and lithuanians who have fought side by side with hitler germany during ww2 is just as laughable as those r******d comments made by these fascists. f**k your article bro, and f**k all of you triggered nazis if you see this flag which has saved the world from speaking german. ungrateful little bastards, since stalin was so "evil" as some say, he should have killed all of those people's grandparents and parents of those who are getting triggered by it, so i would not read such b******t today. again, f**k all of you ungrateful bastards. russia should really nuke those places and wipe this scum from the planet 😂🖕🏻🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
Lmao this is the biggest laughable s**t o have ever read in my entire life. This article contains so much made up garbage it hurts bro it f*****g hurts. and the twitter comments lmao i am dead dont get me started on those r******d twitter comments made up by salty ukro fascists and eastern europeans who got so "offended" with these line because they have lived "through horrible horrible times" lmaooo dude i am dead 😂😂😂😂 r******d a*s people, adidas should produce some clothes to trigger even more retards from the east and from that shithole called ukraine which was not even a f*****g country before. it would be funny to see more triggered morons
There is no comparison between communism and nazism. Everyone knows that nazism is racist and genocidal per ideology, whereas communism is against the rich. No one is born of the "rich race", communism is against inequality between people. As for the alleged crimes of the USSR, many of these simply did not occured or were completely exaggerated. France, England, Belgium and several European countries have done MUCH worse with their colonies in Africa and Asia, but no one remembers this.
Save the world, get blamed for it. :D Never read so much sheepcrap in on article.
So I have a question. Is it the full emblem or just the hammer and sickle part that makes it bad? If it were the Superman Red Son emblem would it still be bad?
One movement ask for better conditions for workers equality and are against any form of racism other ask for world domination by extermination of any body that isn't white but for internet they are the same ....
"One movement ask for better conditions for workers equality" - tell that to all victims of communism.
Load More Replies...Probably not everybody in Germany knows that the USSR does not exist any more. They even might wonder why the Karlshorst Vodka Mall is still closed.
There was a special offer in my country: Tell a joke about the dictator and you receive a 5 year-long invitation to a spa where the guards will massage you with their boots every day and you lose 50% of your body weight.
The Russian market is a large one. They are clearly prioritizing that but I bet they have alienated enough customers from other countries to outweigh the benefit. Not a well thought out move.
holodomor was not genocide but horrendous mismanagement by an incompetent leadership. in any case, to put things into perspective,... Churchill wilfully let 3-4 million Bengalis starve to death during the Bengali famine of 1943.
Holodomor was genocide. The Ukrainians resisted Stalin's collectivisation and he wilfully let them starve by denying them access to food supplies creating a situation not unlike that suffered by those trapped in the Warsaw Ghetto in the latter stages of the war.
Load More Replies...yo wtf adidas. I thought that it was joke but they actually made this? goddamnit. stalin is arguably the biggest mass murderer in history (it's possible mao killed more)
Back in the USSR was written as a parody of a Beach Boys songs and was made, in a way, for fans from the USSR and NOT glamorizing the emotionless standardization of communist ideology like this is. I don't know what genius from Adidas thought this was a good idea, but its completely tone-deaf and tasteless. This is practically pandering to all the freshman sociology 101 idiots who idolize Che Guevara or any other murderous thug from history.
Load More Replies...1. There is a difference between communist and socialist. 2. Many millennials are Democrats, Republicans, and other parties. They aren't just socialists, and that's not even the majority.
Load More Replies...
45
71