Design mis-step? More than 11,000 petition for Nike to recall ‘offensive shoe with Allah’s name’

Sports apparel giant Nike stepped into hot water when thousands of Muslims signed an online petition demanding the company recall a shoe they say carries the Arabic word ‘Allah’ on its sole.

Nike sent Salaam Gateway a same statement it also shared with other media outlets, saying it “respects all religions” and “takes concerns of this nature seriously”.

Nike did not respond to our question asking if the company will recall the shoe. 

The company is no stranger to the Muslim market. It became the first global brand to retail a sports hijab when it started selling it in certain regions in December 2017.

UK resident Saiqa Noreen posted an online petition on Jan 17 asking Nike to recall a specific shoe.

“Nike has produced the Nike Air Max 270 shoe with the script logo on the sole resembling the word Allah in Arabic, which will surely be trampled, kicked and become soiled with mud or even filth,” Noreen wrote.

She added it was “disrespectful and extremely offensive” to Muslims, and “insulting to Islam”.

At the time of this story’s publication, 11,733 people had signed the petition since Noreen started it. She bumped up her goal to 15,000 after hitting the initial 10,000 mark on Jan 29.

The Nike spokesperson said the logo is intended to reflect the AIR MAX brand only.

“The AIR MAX logo was designed to be a stylized representation of Nike’s AIR MAX trademark,” said the NIKE spokesperson.

“Any other perceived meaning or representation is unintentional,” they added.

© SalaamGateway.com 2019 All Rights Reserved