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Inspired by protests in the United States and Australia, animal rights activists in Germany have joined the global campaign to compel sportswear giant Adidas, which is based in Germany, to stop making football cleats out of kangaroo skin. In the past two months, activists with Their Skin Hamburg have conducted six protests in Hamburg and Frankfurt.

“Adidas claims to source its materials in a humane manner, but the unnecessarily killing, traumatizing and bludgeoning defenseless kangaroos is cowardly, cruel and unbecoming of a brand that has the financial means to switch to synthetic, cruelty-free materials,” said Pantalaimon Sander of Their Skin Hamburg. “We will continue to protest Adidas in its own backyard until the company announces an end to its use of kangaroo skin.”

Animal rights activists, including Australian Member of Parliament Emma Hurst and American actor James Cromwell, protest at Adidas over the company’s refusal to stop killing kangaroos to make football cleats.

In early 2022, the Center for a Humane Economy launched the Kangaroos Are Not Shoes campaign to help put a stop to the world’s largest commercial slaughter of land-based wildlife. Since then, the organization has worked with state and federal lawmakers in the United States to introduced bills that would ban the sale of kangaroo parts.

In 2022, the Center for a Humane Economy launched the Kangaroos Are Not Shoes Campaign to curb the slaughter of wild kangaroos in Australia.

As part of the campaign, the Center for a Humane Economy has called on the largest football cleat manufacturers to switch from “k-leather” to cruelty-free materials. With Nike, Puma and New Balance announcing a kangaroo-free policies in 2023, Adidas becomes the last multinational sportswear company to continue using kangaroo skin.

Despite the growth of the #KangaroosAreNotShoes campaign, Adidas has made no indication that it plans to stop using kangaroo skin. In a recent letter to the Center for a Humane Economy, Adidas’s Senior Vice President of Sustainability Policy & Engagement, Frank Henke, defended the company’s decision, claiming that kangaroo slaughter is humane: “Adidas is opposed to kangaroos being killed in an inhumane or cruel manner…. Licensed operators must comply with a stringent code of practice which controls how they operate.”

Frank Henke, the Senior Vice President of Sustainability Policy & Engagement at Adidas, claims that his company “is opposed to kangaroos being killed in an inhumane or cruel manner,” yet Adidas continues to sell kangaroo skin football cleats despite the well documented proof that the kangaroo hunt is inhumane.

In response, the Center for a Humane Economy’s President, Wayne Pacelle, argued that the hunt is inherently inhumane: “The shoots result in the orphaning and killing of 300,000 – 500,000 joeys a year. In whose estimation could orphaning—resulting in either starvation or bludgeoning of the newborns—be considered humane? Assurances from the industry and the Australian government, relating to ‘humane’ and ‘sustainable’ practices associated with the hunt, are without any merit when one considers the all-consuming fear and suffering endured by the juveniles — first watching their mothers die, and then expiring in short order without maternal care. To simply say that the kill is regulated is an act of faith, not a matter of animal welfare science. Nor does it meet any kind of common-sense understanding of what’s happening in the field in Australia.”

Despite the well documented cruelty associated with the commercial kangaroo hunt, Adidas claims to be opposed to kangaroos being killed in an inhumane or cruel manner.

As the Center for a Humane Economy attempts to reason with Adidas in the boardroom, grassroots organizers have pledged to continue confronting the company at its retail stores in the United States, Europe and Australia. Animal rights activists in the U.S. are also planning additional protests at Dick’s Sporting Goods, the country’s largest retail distributor of kangaroo skin cleats. That effort, dubbed #DontBeADicks, began with a disruption inside of a Dick’s store in New York City.

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