Sneakers for the abos

It's not every day that you cannot quite decide how to feel about something in the news.

Nike is making a specially-adapted sneaker shoe for the American Indian demographic. Apparently there are some very good physiological reasons why they should have special shoes, like a different foot shape and so on. All laudable and stuff.

What I can't get over, is their putting tribal designs all over the bloody thing. To quote the BoingBoing article:

The design features several "heritage callouts" as one product manager described it, including sunrise to sunset to sunrise patterns on the tongue and heel of the shoe. Feather designs adorn the inside and stars are on the sole to represent the night sky.


Link

Sorry, what?

Next thing you know, North Star or Toughees is going to make a Khoisan Edition. With embroidered "cave drawing" style designs on the sides, depicting buck being slain by groups of little men with bows.

The mind boggles.