Animal Rights Activists Protest Adidas over Kangaroo Slaughter

Approximately thirty animal rights disrupted business inside of Adidas’s flagship store in New York City as part of a global effort to compel the sportswear giant to stop using kangaroo skin in its soccer cleats. The protest was organized by the animal rights groups NYCLASS and TheirTurn with the support of The Center for A Humane Economy, a Washington-D.C.-based animal welfare organization running a global campaign to compel sneaker manufacturers to replace “k-leather” with cruelty-free materials.

Holding posters and chanting “Kangaroos Are Not Shoes, Just Stop The Slaughter,” the protesters marched throughout the store’s three floors, stopping twice to deliver speak outs about the cruelty associated with the kangaroo hunt. When the police arrived after 25 minutes, the activists left the store and staged a moving picket on the sidewalk while distributing information. Dozens of curious pedestrians, including Adidas customers, said they were shocked and outraged to learn that Adidas uses kangaroo skin in its soccer cleats.

Animal rights activists with the NYCLASS, TheirTurn and the Center for a Humane Economy protest Adidas over the company’s use of kangaroo skin in its soccer cleats

“Adidas claims to source its animal skins humanely, but chasing down terrified kangaroos in the dark of night and shooting them in the head are acts of extreme cruelty,” said Edita Birnkrant, the Executive Director of NYCLASS. “Adidas needs to do the right thing by joining Nike and Puma in replacing kangaroo skin with cruelty-free materials.”

Animal rights activists are calling on Adidas to join Nike and Puma in replacing the kangaroo skin used in its soccer cleats with cruelty-free materials

Commercial hunters hired by companies like Adidas kill approximately two million kangaroos each year. It’s the largest commercial slaughter of land-based mammals on the planet. according to the Center for a Humane Economy. An estimated 40% of kangaroos are shot in the neck or body instead of the head, which often wounds the kangaroos instead of instantly killing them. Those who escape the hunters die slowly from their gunshot wounds. 

Some of the females who are shot have babies (joeys) in their pouches or by their sides. Code dictates that hunters either decapitate or bludgeon them to death. The joeys who are not in their mother’s pouch die from exposure and predation. Each year, an estimated 500,000 to 800,000 joeys fall victim to the nightly kangaroo hunt.

Adidas hires commercial hunters in Australia to kill kangaroos for their skin, which the company uses to make soccer cleats

“When Adidas peels the skin off of the bodies of the kangaroos who they kill, they are engaging in theft,” said Jamie Logan. U.S. Campaign Manager of Generation Vegan. “The kangaroos don’t belong to Adidas, and the skin is not theirs to take.”

The May 31st protest at Adidas took place two months after Nike and Puma announced that they would discontinue their use of “k-leather” and replace it with cruelty-free materials by the end of 2023.

“Adidas has become an outlier in the athletic shoe industry by continuing to source kangaroo parts even though other fabrics can be used for high-performance shoes,” noted Wayne Pacelle, president of the Center for a Humane Economy. “We are so grateful to TheirTurn for so boldly raising awareness of this form of cruelty to wildlife and demanding that Adidas do better.”

In March 2023, Nike and Puma announced that they would stop using kangaroo skin by the end of 2023

Animal rights groups in Australia, which are especially protective of their native kangaroos, staged their first protest against Adidas on May 7th in Melbourne. The activists in New York say they will continue to protest at Adidas until the company announces a kangaroo-free policy.

A coalition of animal advocacy groups in Australia staged a protest at the Adidas store in Melbourne (May 7, 2023)

To learn more about the campaign to end the use of kangaroo skin, please visit Visit KangaroosAreNotShoes.org.

The Center for a Humane Economy’s KangaroosAreNotShoes campaign website