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Animal rights groups around the world are joining a global campaign to compel sportswear giant Adidas to stop fabricating football cleats with kangaroos skin. In 2020, The Center for a Humane Economy (CHE),  a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, and its partner organization, Animal Wellness Action (AWA), launched the #KangaroosAreNotShoes campaign to protect kangaroos from the commercial kangaroo skin trade, the largest slaughter of land-based wildlife on the planet with over a million kangaroos killed annually. With the help of animal rights groups in Australia, North America and Europe, the organizations convinced Nike, Puma and New Balance to replace “k-leather” with cruelty-free materials. In 2023, they turned their attention to Adidas, the largest of the few remaining companies that produce soccer cleats using kangaroo skin.

In 2020, the Center for a Humane Economy and its parter organization, Animal Wellness Action, launched the Kangaroos Are Not Shoes Campaign to curb the slaughter of wild kangaroos in Australia

In Oregon, activists with Animal Rights Collective Portland have staged protests at Adidas’s U.S. headquarters, at an Adidas store and at a Portland Timbers soccer match. The Timbers is sponsored by Adidas. Dani Rukin, an Animal Rights Collective organizer said, “We informed thousands of Timbers fans that Adidas kills kangaroos to make soccer shoes, and the vast majority were not cool with it. We distributed over 600 handouts, and we will return to distribute more if Adidas doesn’t make the switch from kangaroo skin to cruelty-free materials.” Rukin said her organization was inspired to join the campaign after a Zoom meeting with representatives of Australia’s Animal Justice Party (AJP), a political party leading the legislative effort in Australia to ban the commercial kangaroo hunts.

The Animal Rights Collective in Portland stages a protests Adidas at Portland Timbers soccer match. Adidas sponsors the Timbers.

In Germany, activists with Animal Rebellion disrupted Adidas’s Annual General Meeting in Furth, Germany, holding up posters and calling on the company to observe its own animal welfare policies. In response, Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden acknowledged that the commercial kangaroo hunt is “terrible” and hinted that company plans to discontinue the use of k-leather — “And we will certainly, maybe, switch faster than you think.”

In an effort to justify its use of kangaroo skin, however, Gulden stated that it’s is a “byproduct” of the kangaroo killing industry. According to the Center for a Humane Economy, that claim is false. “The only reason the commercial shooting of kangaroos and the orphaning of their joeys occurs is because non-Australian companies like Adidas buy up the skins,” said Wayne Pacelle, the President of the Center for a Humane Economy. “End the purchase of the skins and the commercial kill collapses.”

Other activists in Germany are staging protests at the global headquarters of Adidas and media giant Bertelsmann because the company’s CEO, Thomas Rabe, is the Chairman of the Board of Adidas.

By claiming that kangaroo skin is a by-product of the meat industry when, in fact, it’s the backbone, @Adidas board chairman Thomas Rabe continues to justify the mass slaughter of wild animals and to mislead consumers.@ThomasRabe (who is also the @Bertelsmann_com CEO), knows… pic.twitter.com/ZYjv0iaRbb

— Animal Rights News (@theirturn) March 15, 2024

In New York City, activists with NYCLASS and TheirTurn have staged over a dozen protests inside of Adidas stores and at the U.S. headquarters of Bertelsmann. During the protests, activists have called on Thomas Rabe and Adidas to follow in the footsteps of Nike, Puma and New Balance, which announced in 2023 that they would terminate their use of “k-leather.”

When the commercial hunters hired by @Adidas slaughter wild kangaroos, they often shoot lactating mothers and their joeys. Instead of massacring families in order to steal their skin for football cleats, #Adidas can follow in the footsteps of Nike, Puma and New Balance, which… pic.twitter.com/5IqSBHVxHM

— Animal Rights News (@theirturn) July 1, 2024

During two of the protests in New York City, activists hired a mobile billboard company to display video footage of the commercial kangaroo hunt while driving in circles around the Adidas store.

In Soho (NYC shopping district), hundreds of pedestrians stopped in their tracks to watch a mobile billboard showing video footage of commercial hunters in Australia killing wild kangaroos for Adidas, which makes soccer cleats out of their skin. They appeared to be shocked and… pic.twitter.com/kcPR4QpIS3

— Animal Rights News (@theirturn) May 30, 2024

In Boston, animal rights activists have staged several protests inside and outside of the Adidas store in Assembly Square, a heavily trafficked pedestrian mall. The organizer, veteran animal rights campaigner Laura Ray, was inspired to join the global in early 2024 when she saw the protests taking place in other cities. “Killing wild animals and stealing their skin for clothing and shoes is inhumane and unnecessary,” said Ray. “Adidas has taken the cruelty to a new level, however, by indiscriminately killing lactating mothers and their joeys, who they bludgeon to death.” A video of one of their protests went viral on TikTok and has almost eight million views.

@theirturn

Disrupt! #adidas is still making shoes out of #kangaroos even though Nike, Puma and New Balance switched to #crueltyfree materials. #kangaroosarenotshoes (see link in bio) @Bertelsmann Foundation @adidas

♬ original sound – Donny Moss

Adidas claims that the animals whose skin they use are “free from physical discomfort, pain and injury”

On December 2nd and 3rd, hundreds of animal rights activists in 20 cities staged protests at Adidas stores in support of a global effort to compel the sportswear company to stop using kangaroo skin in its soccer cleats. Australia’s Animal Justice Party, which is advocating for a ban on kangaroo slaughter in the Parliament, organized the global day of action in support of the Center for a Humane Economy’s “Kangaroos are Not Shoes” campaign. Advocacy groups staged protests in Australia, Canada, Italy, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, New Zealand and the United States.

“Adidas states that it opposes the inhumane slaughter of kangaroos, but bludgeoning and orphaning a half-a-million joeys every year is the antithesis of humane,” said Jennifer Skiff, campaign director at the Center for a Humane Economy. “The global protest was a call on Adidas to uphold its pledge to operate humanely.“

Adidas claims that the leather used in its soccer cleats is sourced from kangaroos who are slaughtered humanely. The Center for a Humane Economy has provided the company with evidence demonstrating otherwise.

During the protests, participants read an Animal Justice Party manifesto decrying Adidas’s support of the kangaroo hunt: “Adidas, you have the power to change, to be on the right side of history. We are watching. The world is watching. We will hold you to account, and we will keep coming back until you stop killing kangaroos.”

@centerforahumaneeconomy

@adidas we are watching. The world is watching. kangaroosarenotshoes

♬ original sound – centerforahumaneeconomy – centerforahumaneeconomy

According to the Center for a Humane Economy, the nightly kangaroo hunt represents the largest slaughter of land-based wildlife in the world. Because Adidas is the only large shoe manufacturer still using kangaroo leather, the company is the primary target of animal rights groups.

During a protest at the Adidas store in Sydney, Australia, the Animal Justice Party called on the company to stop killing kangaroos to make soccer cleats

“Animals inhabit this planet with us, not for us,” said Edita Birnkrant, the Executive Director of NYCLASS, an organizer of the NYC protest. “When we learned that Adidas was paying hunters to slaughter kangaroos and steal their skin, advocates in New York wanted to join the global fight to protect them.”

Inspired by protests in Australia and the U.S., #AnimalRights 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: https://t.co/0goS5N1NGS #KangaroosAreNotShoes pic.twitter.com/3YysTs1Euc

— Animal Rights News (@theirturn) October 26, 2023

“Our request is simple, and it’s fair,” said Donny Moss of TheirTurn.net, an organizer of the NYC protest. “We’re asking that Adidas join Nike, Puma, Diadora and New Balance in switching from kangaroo skin to cruelty-free materials, which are readily available to the company. With one call to his product development team, Adidas’s CEO Bjørn Gulden could put the wheels in motion to make this ethical upgrade.”

During protests in Europe, Australia and the United States, animal rights activists called on Adidas to stop making soccer cleats out of kangaroo skin

In July, 2023, Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick re-introduced the Kangaroo Protection Act. If passed, the law would ban the importation and sale of kangaroo products in the United States. The state of California banned the import and sale of products made from kangaroos in 1971. In 2023, NY State Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal introduced similar legislation.

@theirturn

See how #adidas customers, employees and the NYPD react to #kangaroosarenotshoes protest.

♬ original sound – Donny Moss

The Center for a Humane Economy and Animal Justice Party assert that the #KangaroosAreNotShoes campaign, which is growing in size, scope and strength, will ultimately compel Adidas to replace “k-leather” with a cruelty-free alternative.

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.