Popular clothing and shoe designer, Jeremy Scott, has found himself in hot water. In collaboration with Adidas, Scott designed a pair of sneakers featuring a cuff that goes around the ankle. Many supporters and critics of both Scott and Adidas took personal offense. Several claimed that the design was racially insensitive, as the cuffs closely resembled shackles, a symbol of slavery. As is common knowledge, shackles were used to confine captured slaves on slave ships in transit to America.

Several bloggers, journalists, on-air personalities and others have commented about the shoe and what the design implies. One such person is Dr. Boyce Watkins, a professor at Syracuse University, who had much to say when images of the sneaker were posted to Adidas’ facebook page. In an article for Your Black World, he states,

‘When I see the shoes, I also think about the ankle bracelets being worn by far too many men who are affected by the mass incarceration epidemic that the White House says nothing about.  The black family has ripped itself apart because so many of our fathers, brothers, husbands and sons are locked away in prison, leading their children vulnerable to all the horrible things that happen when the man of the house is not away.  I am offended by these shoes because there is nothing funny about the prison industrial complex, which is the most genocidal thing to happen to the black family since slavery itself.’

Dr. Watkins acknowledges that some would feel that he is overreacting; however, it would appear that there are more people who share his sentiments than those who do not. When the post was made on facebook, several users called the design ‘ignorant’, ‘offensive’, ‘inappropriate’ and a new way to ‘promote slavery.’

Adidas heard the angry cries loud and clear. In a statement, a representative for Adidas said that the design “is nothing more than the designer Jeremy Scott’s outrageous and unique take on fashion and has nothing to do with slavery.” Still, the company has decided to cancel the shoe. In the same statement the representative goes on to say, “We apologize if people are offended by the design and we are withdrawing our plans to make them available in the marketplace.”

Jeremy Scott is known to be a quirky, fun-spirited designer. In previous projects with Adidas he has incorporated themes using Mickey Mouse and panda bears. Scott is, in his own words, heavily influenced by cartoons, toys and his childhood. For this particular shoe, he was inspired by the 90s toy, My Pet Monster. The toy is purple and orange and wears bright orange handcuffs around the wrists. The controversial shoe is purple and orange as well and has bright orange cuffs intended to go around the ankles.

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Practice makes perfection as they say and, the third day of Moda Lisboa Fashion Week proved the point. It was superb: great designer, stunning runways, an explosion of emotions inside clothes.

The tight schedule of showing so many ideas and creative expressions took its beginning with Say My Name, trying to emulate Sophia Loren in the 50s as a tech blogger. The audience was divided on the outcome of this experiment but beyond this, everyone seemed satisfied with the combination of colors and lines.

Afterwards for the widely expecting menswear, Ricardo Andrez brought his collection of black, grey and pastel tones with good shapes and designs. You can easily identify his work due to the strategical placements of nude skin which facilitate better movement in the garment while at the same time, offering a cool and alternative style to men.

The following show was explained in the passionate words of its creator — Filipe Faísca told Toonari Post the reason why he choose to create emotion instead of just clothes:

My inspiration for this collection first is the movie of Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life — full of images about cosmos, explosions, grace and movement where I wanted put the woman’s body and transport it to the feminine universe. Following, [it is] also based in my desire to bring color and life to Portugal, [inspired by] such amazing beaches and [the] long summer and mainly having in mind my biggest goal: to see the pleasure of a woman dressed my clothes. (…) Each model was made one by one in my atelier for I [want to] be sure about how special [it] will be in the end.

The audience was stunned by the high level of creativity, movement and femininity oozing from Filipe’s collection. It was one of the highlights of the night for sure.

Lidija Kolovrat also offered a colorful show, dressing the women in transparent and light materials that gave the audience the feeling of lightness and joyful ease while simultaneously conveying elegance. It was possible to take in her presentation in two stages; the first moment of serenity through her black and pastel tones and afterwards, a colorful burst filled with animal-, shape- and line-print fabrics.

It had been a long day of breathtaking runway, but it didn’t fase Dawid Tomaszewski who had prepared a sophisticated collection with pink in different shades, combined with classic nude. His inspiration is based on flowers and the transitory cycle of life, where the end is the beginning and with this he went from light pink to strong pink and also included shimmery materials. Elegancy would be the best adjective to describe his wonderful pieces.

Changing the structure of the day a bit, Adidas hit the runway with great energy and power. The sportswear company showed a clean and casual line followed by an American-influenced, urban jungle style. The Performance Collection was dedicated to runners and other training needs as well as sports like football and tennis. Men and women were walking with confidence, showing the power and versatility of the collection.

White Tent brought back the classic and delicate energy to Moda Lisboa, presenting their designs inspired by architecture and minimalist details. The predominance of nude tones paired with silhouettes was marked by different proportions and was a tasteful pleasure to the appreciation of the audience. There were a few dashes of royal blue, green, orange and metallic silver coming up in the collection but they helped uphold a harmony in the final product. It is definitely worth checking our piece by piece.

The last designer of the night, Nuno Baltazar, dressed his models in his collection called MA DAME — a cosmopolitan and dynamic style of dress. The pieces were both urban and feminine, clean and elaborated, with special details such as geometric lines, accessories and formal elements. The final collection of the day received a standing ovation and deserved it.

Now, it is just a nights wait for the last day of this long weekend of exquisite catwalk which has brought great life to the warm Lisbon and at the same time delivered good taste and wonderful designs to the world.

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Tyson Chandler, of the Dallas Mavericks, and LeBron James, of the Miami Heat, both of whom are competing against each other in the NBA finals this year, played AAU basketball growing up. As George Dohrmann says in his book, Play Their Hearts Out, “Nearly every great-American-born basketball player of the last ten year—from Kevin Garnett to Kobe Bryant to Tracy McGrady to LeBron James—has been a product of the AAU system, yet it remains a largely unexplored world.” But know, thanks to Dohrmann’s book, many surprising connections between AAU coaches, players and large sneaker companies have been brought to light.

Dohrmann’s book uncovers details about how the AAU basketball system works. For general reference, AAU is a basketball organization for pre-college aged players. Some of the coaches for AAU have been known to have affiliations with large sneaker companies such as Nike and Adidas, who wish to align promising young talent with their products. Therefore, these coaches will be paid significant sums of money by these companies and be given their products. Then, the coaches have been known to extravagantly shower their AAU players with these products, as well as other gifts. Tyson Chandler is one such player. Dohrmann discusses one of Chandlers AAU coaches, stating,”He had allegedly bought Chandler a Cadillac Escalade, moved Chandler’s family from San Bernardino…and taken him on shopping sprees for clothes and shoes that often exceeded $5,000.”Dohrmann also explains, how on one occasion, George Raveling, the head of grassroots basketball for Nike, contacted Chandler’s coach at the time, for both Chandlers “shoe size and his address”. Following the call “approximately 20 pairs of shoes” arrived at Chandlers house.

To understand when and how the recruitment system by sneaker companies dipped into to AAU basketball market, one needs to know the story of Sonny Vaccaro and Nike Founder Phil Knight. Vaccaro approached Phil Knight in 1978 with a business proposition. The proposition was that Vaccaro himself could help Knight and Nike compete with Converse, a sneaker company that had the monopoly on the basketball-shoe market at the time.  Vaccaro’s proposed plan was centered around the fact that he had connections to college coaches and believed that with these connections, he would be able to get the best collegiate players to wear Nike. Vaccaro believed that the best collegiate players wearing Nike shoes would create a domino effect to the fanbase.  Vaccaro believed if the best collegiate players were wearing Nike, fans would be enticed to buy the same sneakers their favorite players were wearing.

Vaccaro cemented his claims in 1984 when he signed Michael Jordan to Nike. Michael was then only a sophomore at North Carolina and had yet to grow into arguably the best basketball player of all time. A year later, in 1985, all four final-four teams would be wearing Nikes, which symbolized their control of the market. In 1992, six years after the 1985 tournament, and after being fired a year earlier by Nike, Vaccaro joined Adidas.  Vaccaro decided to bring Adidas to the AAU level in order to gain control of the youth market because thanks to his earlier work Nike already had the college basketball monopoly. Shortly after, Nike aligned itself with the AAU market as well.

All in all, George Dohrmann’s book Play Their Hearts Out is a fascinating account of the world of grassroots basketball.  For any basketball fan, Play Their Hearts Out is a must read and it will change the way that you look at the game.

Domenic Gareri / Shutterstock.com

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