Adidas Targeted in 9 Countries Over Kangaroo Leather Cleats
Animal activists launched a targeted campaign to protest Adidas’ use of kangaroo leather over the weekend, disrupting operations at several of the German sportswear brand’s retail stores.
More than 30 animal welfare groups led by the Animal Justice Party and the Center for a Humane Economy’s “Kangaroos Are Not Shoes” movement came together in 20 locations in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland and New Zealand. Protesters entered stores chanting the slogan, “Adidas, stop killing kangaroos to make football shoes,” while showcasing photos of animals slaughtered to create soccer cleat uppers.
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Each of the protests started with activists reading a manifesto urging Adidas to change its ways and ditch the animal skins. “We will hold you to account and we will keep coming back, until you stop killing kangaroos,” demonstrators said.
Wayne Pacelle, president of the Center for a Humane Economy and Animal Wellness Action, thanked the Animal Justice Party and Their Turn for helping lead the mobilization efforts. “Adidas is no doubt taking notice, as it should as the last holdout among the biggest athletic shoe brands to finance such cruelty including orphaning joeys once protected by their mothers,” he added.
Among athletic footwear brands, Adidas is one of the final holdouts using kangaroo leather. This year, Nike, Puma, and New Balance announced plans to phase out the material. Praising these companies for their “ethical decision” to stop using kangaroo leather, Animal Justice Party New South Wales state director Louise Ward criticized Adidas for “fueling the kill for profit” as one of the world’s largest purchasers.
“We’ve been told by an executive at Adidas that they made their decision to use kangaroo leather… based on statements by the Australian government and RSPCA Australia that the commercial killing of the marsupials is sustainable and humane,” Jennifer Skiff, campaign director at the Center for a Humane Economy, said.
“Bludgeoning and orphaning a half-a-million joeys every year is the antithesis of humane,” she added, noting that kangaroo leather appears in about 1 percent of the brand’s styles. “Adidas knows this. We’re all calling them out on their corporate policy that states they’re opposed to kangaroos being killed inhumanely.”
Their Turn, which led the U.S. protests, began targeting Adidas’ use of kangaroo skins in May in New York City. “We could not have imagined that just six months later activists in almost 20 other cities around the world would join us in calling on Adidas to stop killing kangaroos and their joeys,” activist Donny Moss said. In September, vegan actor and Academy Award nominee James Cromwell took part in a protest outside of Adidas’ SoHo flagship, lending star power to the cause. “Seeing the social media posts from this weekend’s protests in California, Europe and Australia will assuredly inspire even more activists to join the global effort,” Moss added.
The issue has recently gained legislative traction, with the Kangaroo Protection Act (H.R. 4995), which aims to ban the import and sale of kangaroo products in the U.S., reintroduced in Congress by Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Penn.) in July. California banned kangaroo products in 1971, and other states have attempted similar measures. In January, Democratic Oregon State Sen. Floyd Prozanski introduced a bill banning the marsupial-derived material. While the bill failed to move forward, Beaverton, Ore.-based Nike bailed on k-leather just two months later, saying it plans to release a proprietary synthetic upper that rivals the animal skin’s performance properties.
The The Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia (KIAA) has argued that developing such a solution won’t be easy. Kangaroo leather is “weight for weight the strongest leather available,” with a low fat content and a very thin grain layer compared to bovine leather, it said. Its structure is made up of highly organized fiber bundles, creating a natural supportive mesh that offers high tensile strength suitable for athletic cleats subject to substantial wear and tear. KIAA also claims that as a byproduct of Australia’s meat industry, kangaroo hides are an ecologically sound solution, creating a use for material that would otherwise end up as waste. “Turning this by-product into leather using sustainable practices is the most responsible approach in a circular economy,” KIAA said.
