Nike-owned brand Converse has faced a backlash from social media users not once, but twice. The first ad featured its recently released Chuck 70 X sneaker; the second was for a collab with Danish lifestyle brand Palmes.
The Nike-owned brand stirred up some social media users with a pair of ads they said recalled Klan imagery (Image source: @
Sky News Sky NewsThe backlash also came from a US congressman, several celebrities, and marketing experts. US Rep. Troy Carter called the ad "racist, reckless and deeply offensive”, saying, "Nike and Converse, what the hell were you thinking?"
He was one of many who called for the staff involved in the ad to be fired and for a boycott of the company, as social media users questioned how the ad could have cleared the company’s advertising vetting process.
"Do not insult our intelligence by dismissing this as an unfortunate misunderstanding. An advertising campaign does not just appear.
"It is conceived, photographed, reviewed, approved and distributed. At every stage, someone had the opportunity — and the responsibility — to say no,” said Carter.
“That’s a lynching, yes?”
The Chuck 70 X sneaker was posted on Converse’s Threads account. The ad features Converse global ambassador, Karina from the K-pop group aespa, standing in a spotlight. The spotlight is shaped like the famous Converse star, and one point shows a bright triangle on her skirt. This shape reminds some social users of the outline of a Klansman hood.
For some users on social media, the lighting also made the black sneakers dangling from her hands appear to be suspended, as though someone was hanging next to the robed person.
Together, the image evokes one of a Klansman standing next to the victim of a lynching, as Yvette Nicole Brown pointed out on threads“That’s a lynching, yes?”
The second backlash comes in an ad that features a man on a ladder holding a pair of sneakers overhead.
Brand apologies
After Women’s Wear Daily reached out to Nike, the brand responded with this statement: “We’re sorry. We understand why this image is deeply upsetting and recognise that we got this wrong. We removed it from our channels and are working to remove it everywhere it appeared. This should not have happened, and we will do better.”
No further comment has been given by the brand.
A Texas-based civil rights attorney Lee Merritt, posted on Instagram that Converse’s apology “doesn’t undo what got past legal, marketing and leadership at every step.
“We keep having this conversation because corporations keep failing the same test,” he wrote. “Do better means catching this before it airs – not after we’re offended.”
Karina and her management company, SM Entertainment Group, did not immediately respond to messages through their Instagram accounts.
But is it art?
However, not all social media users feel the same about the ads. Many feel the outrage is overblown.
Posting both ads side by side, fitness content creator Kida Maree stated, “There is NO REASON why WE should see an advertisement & immediately think of Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday” while culture writer Meecham Whitson Meriweather compared it to the backlash that led to Pepsi’s July apology for its Wild Cherry post: “everyone is insane.”
Meriweather also added that the caption - “Under stage lights or streetlights, the star always finds the frame.” - posted under the ad references the ad. “Like, the caption tells you what is happening, what is being referenced. Y’all don’t know how to talk about art, and that’s the problem.”
Lynching history
The Ku Klux Klan historically has used lynchings, beatings and torture as a primary tool of racial terror and intimidation against Black people and other minority groups in the US.
Unfortunately, lynchings still occur in the US today. Over the past two years, about a half-dozen Black women and men have been found hanged across the South. A reported 10 Black people found hanging in 2026.
