Converse Pulls Ad After Comparisons to KKK Imagery

Converse, the well-known shoe company, removed an advertisement this week after many people said it looked like it showed imagery connected to the Ku Klux Klan, a violent racist group from American history. The ad was part of a campaign that started in late August to promote a sneaker called the Chuck 70 X. After a wave of angry responses on social media, Converse apologized and took the image down from its online channels.

The ad showed the lower half of a person wearing a long white garment while holding a pair of black sneakers. Many people who saw the photo said the white garment looked like a robe worn by members of the Ku Klux Klan, a hate group known for terrorizing Black Americans. The lighting in the photo made the sneakers appear to be floating in the air, which critics said looked like a lynching — a word for the horrific practice of killing people by hanging, often used against Black Americans in the past. Shadows in the photo also formed a long, pointed triangle shape that reminded viewers of the pointed hood worn by KKK members.

People quickly shared their reactions online. Kendall Peacock, a Black man who runs a tutoring and mentorship program in Atlanta, Georgia, called the ad 'very insensitive and distasteful.' He added that even if no one meant to be racist on purpose, the harm it caused was still real. Stephanie Schwartz, a social justice photographer, wrote online that any photographer would have known exactly what the image looked like.

Converse released a written statement apologizing for the ad. 'We're sorry,' the company said. 'We understand why this image is deeply upsetting and recognize that we got this wrong.' The company also said it was working to remove the image from every place it had appeared and promised to do better in the future.

It was not clear right away who created or approved the ad. The photo was part of a campaign that also featured Karina, a K-pop singer and member of the group aespa, who had been named a global ambassador for Converse in June. Representatives for Karina did not respond to questions about the ad.

Converse has a long history in American sports. The company made its first sneaker for basketball players in 1917, and the famous Chuck Taylor style was named after a popular basketball player who became the company's top spokesman in the early 1920s. Today, the brand is one of the most recognized shoe companies in the world.

This was not the only recent case of a company pulling a product because of racist imagery. In August, the store Target stopped selling a children's Halloween costume that many people said looked like a racist caricature of Black Americans. The costume was a circus clown outfit with a mask showing a wide, grinning mouth with big teeth, and critics said it echoed harmful images from Jim Crow-era minstrel shows — a painful chapter in American history when Black people faced severe discrimination and racism.