Oopsie! Adidas was shocked..shocked! to discover that its soccer jersey customizing kit made the number 44 due look exactly like the symbol used by Nazi SS units during the WWII. That was, as you know but apparently no one in the chain of command at Adidas did, the brutal section of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich that carried out “The Final Solution.” A German historian, Michael König, first pointed out that the kit’s design was “very questionable.” That’s called an “understatement.”
An Adidas spokesperson insisted that the kit’s resemblance to the SS thunderbolts was unintentional. [Notice of correction: I originally left out the “un.”] “We as a company are committed to opposing xenophobia, antisemitism, violence and hatred in every form,” he said. “We will block personalization of the jerseys.”
Nobody in Germany found that design objectionable until a historian pointed it out?
Oh-oh…
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Pointer: Curmie
Ethics Alarms 
While it’s possible that they joined purely as a “go along to get along” business decision, (unlike clothier Hugo Boss who designed the uniforms of the SS) it’s a fact that Adidas’ founders Adi and Rudi Dassler joined the Nazi Party in 1933. From Time magazine: “The German shoe brand, launched in the 1920s, was one of many German companies to cooperate with the Nazi party during the 1930s and 1940s. (The Adidas corporate site does not mention this history—framing the period of 1900-1949 as ‘only the start of our story.’)”
Another reason the company’s current management should know better.
https://time.com/6224899/adidas-kanye-west-antisemitism-nazis/
Relevant context, I’d say. Thanks Greg.
Rarely do I fact check claims in this site. This time I used Google to get a Nazi SS symbol image
Unless Google is subtly airbrushing historical images, the jerseys look nothing like the SS symbol.
First link that came up for me: https://www.adl.org/resources/hate-symbol/ss-bolts
My favorite tattoo on that ADL page is the one depicting starched gym socks in that shape.
I still don’t think that image qualified to represent similarity any more than Trump making an ugly face being associated with racism and dictatorship. I’ll see your link and raise you a kiss.
I thought German design sense was stuck in the 80s.
I’ll say the same thing to you as I will to EC: context matters. At a time when Jews are being subjected to outright cultural assault in Europe and the U.S., international companies greasing the wheels to make it easier for anti-Semites to threaten Jews subtly or openly is either negligent or malign.
Aside: an aspiring commenter just wrote in, “Some serious ‘Old Man Yells At Cloud’ energy with this post.”
That’s not how one gets a ticket to posting at Ethics Alarms….
this is your circus, Jack, but, given the frequency of old man yelling at clouds references that come up here, it would seem the commenter is trying to fit in.
-Jut
Simple rule: don’t insult me in the very first comment. It doesn’t bode well. Wait until you’re IN before you try to fit in.
that’s probably a fair rule: let familiarity breed contempt; don’t rush it.
-Jut
You owe me a keyboard.
Regarding the KISS logo, they had to modify it in Germany and Austria for perceived connections to Nazi symbolism:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss_(band)#:~:text=Our%20number%20one%20rule%20has%20always%20been%20no%20rules.%22&text=The%20letters%20happened%20to%20look,Nazi%20symbolism%20in%20the%20logo.
but for the fact that Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons were both Jewish, that accusation seems more plausible—after all, the logo for KISS contained two S’s.
they denied the connection and claimed that the double-S was just a stylized font. That seems plausible enough to be believed
this jersey is not as close as the KISS logo.
-Jut
Gene Simmons is the son of a Holocaust survivor. Paul Stanley is related to survivors.
jvb
“An Adidas spokesperson insisted that the kit’s resemblance to the SS thunderbolts were intentional.”
UNintentional.
For me, they are not identical. They are vaguely similar, but I think this is reaching for controversy.
Having said that, I do not get that font. It is a very strange looking 4. Why is the numeral made up of several pieces. I have never seen that font before.
-Jut
Agreed. If I saw that, it wouldn’t make me think of the Nazi bolts, especially if on a sports jersey where a number should be. I’d see “44”. This seems a typical leftist reach to find victimhood and harm where none exists, or where very few in the general public would know to take offense without being told they should..
I agree 100%. It is a reach to create a controversy. One is obviously a number and the other a zig zag.
I’ve been unable to determine if the number 44 jersey was used by Adidas in their advertising, or if it was requested by a customer. What is definitely true, however, is that the highest number worn by any member of the German national team is 26. Indeed, I can’t remember any international player for any country with a number 44. Ever.
It’s a strange font, but I can’t blame Adidas for failing to anticipate that someone would request a number that no player wears… if that’s what happened. But is it? Certainly the company’s statement sounds like generic ass-covering rather than either an apology or a rebuttal.
Certainly the company’s statement sounds like generic ass-covering rather than either an apology or a rebuttal.
My impression as well, Curmie. They made a do it yourself nazi shirt kit, a la “Let’s Go Brandon!” “What? Thunderbolts? SS symbols? Nah, it’s just a number 44!”
I tend to agree. I was checking the German national team’s jersey and roster, thinking a player used 44 but didn’t find it. I saw 4, 10, and other numbers using that font. It would not surprised me if someone requested the number and Adidas didn’t realize it could be interpreted as an “SS” symbol. I can’t blame Adidas because probably had nothing to do with the shirt’s design or the script.
Incidentally, I saw a movie a while ago about the Dassler brothers and their feed that resulted in tue founding of Adidas and Puma. It was good. The movie is called “Adidas v. Puma.”
jvb
This also brings issues of free expression to light.
In a country where all expressions of Nazism is banned, how many non-historian Germans could even recognize the unlikely pairing of digits as resembling Schutzstaffel iconography?
In other news, Wal-Marts version of this story is old enough to vote now. https://www.flickr.com/photos/ebilflindas/309966317
Well, to be fair, this could have just been some old designs someone dredged up from when Adidas was making shoes for the Wehrmacht and the founders were leaders of the Nazi Youth.
You have to be careful about these things when you are Adidas or Puma.
Michael, meet my old friend Gregg…
I’m getting mixed messages here. I, for one, want a future where the Nazis have such negligible ideological influence that nobody feels they have to learn about all the Nazi iconography to make sure that what they do has zero resemblance. (Did you know that some humans use the number 88 as code for “Heil Hitler?” Would you recognize a Khmer Rouge badge?) I want a future where anyone who sees a vague resemblance to Nazi iconography takes it for granted that it was unintentional, because modern people will find the idea of actually subscribing to Nazi ideology to be ridiculous.
Granted, we’re not there yet, but I think jamming their signal and brand identity is more effective than allowing them to unilaterally claim whatever symbols, initialisms, or numbers they want and preventing the rest of us from expressing ourselves normally for fear of association. (I realize people want to be able to immediately peg someone as a Nazi, but I suspect the actually result is that real Nazis find other ways to secretly communicate and meanwhile the process sows confusion and resentment among regular people.)
Think about it: When a minority has distinctive imagery that is copied (intentionally or not) by the majority, it’s called cultural appropriation and it’s considered bad for the minority. The minority “owns” that imagery and no one else is allowed to use it. (I have concerns about that, too, but let’s assume for a second that it’s all fine.)
However, if a cultural minority is based on oppressing other people, the default assumption is that the people copying their iconography are coming under their thrall rather than diluting their culture. If we cast doubt on that assumption, and we successfully give people constructive alternatives to joining racist cults, we can finish the work of Mel Brooks and so many others, and permanently consign Nazis to the realm of historical punchlines, like their fellows the Spanish Inquisition.
Killing an idea is not that difficult–it happens all the time. All that is necessary are better ideas (although comedy helps a great deal as well).
Did you know that some humans use the number 88 as code for “Heil Hitler?” Yes, but that is not a historical reference, and “88” has, obviously, may other innocent uses. It also can turn up innocently.
Would you recognize a Khmer Rouge badge? No, and there is no large, historically discriminated-against group currently suffering a major outbreak in open hate that would feel threatened by one.
I rate the company’s facilitation of the bolts on shirts as only slightly less sinister than marketing shirts with a burning cross logo. The fact that a lot of people don’t recognize the SS symbol is what makes it like “Let’s Go Brandon!”
“No, and there is no large, historically discriminated-against group currently suffering a major outbreak in open hate that would feel threatened by one.”
Fair point. Unless we’re also making headway addressing the present problem of hate and discrimination, anything we do to try and weaken the legacy of past hate groups would be at best pointless, and possibly confuse and unnerve people who are feeling vulnerable.
I thought you’d accept that point, EC.
Until getting my most recent haircut from my eighty-three year-old German-born and extremely Teutonic barber Carsten, although I knew “Adidas” was a contraction of the shoe company’s founder’s name, Adi Dassler (whose brother split off and formed the Puma shoe company!), I did NOT know “Adi” is the nickname for “Adolf.” As Carsten informed me, “Ever since you-know-who, no German kids have been named Adolf.”
Personally, I do not find the font that similar to the SS symbol. But I’m neither German nor Jewish. As a one-time wannabe graphic designer, I do find the font all of barely legible, unattractive and just plain dumb.