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Tuesday 22 July 2008

Nike Air Stab x The London Knife Crime epidemic

Let's all blame Nike for the wave of knife crime that is sweeping over Britain. Nike are now discontinuing sales of the "Nike Air Stab" shoe in the UK due to pressure from crime stoppers.


Here's the full article:

Nike withdraws Air Stab shoes over knife crime fears

LONDON - Nike has withdrawn a range of trainers called Air Stab following the sudden spate of knife attacks across the country, many involving teenagers.

The shoes, which launched as a limited-edition "retro" range two years ago, are based on a design from 1988 and carry the logo "Runnin' 'n' Gunnin".

The sportswear giant is to take the £90 shoe, which has been a big seller, out of distribution. It is no longer available to buy on Nike's official website, although other retailers are still selling it.

A spokesman for Nike said the name was not a reference to knives but had become an "unfortunate coincidence" given the surge in knife-related crimes.

He explained the shoe was first launched in 1988 as a stability running shoe, which is where the word "stab" was derived from in the product's name.

He said: "We completely reject the idea that we are in any way condoning or encouraging the issue of knife usage.

"At any given time, Nike has thousands of shoes in the market, each with an individual name - it would be impossible to name them all based on future assumptions about news stories. Given the current climate, however, we have withdrawn the shoe from our Nike Town store."

However, the company continues to sell a range called Pocketknife online, as part of its all-weather ACG range.

Hannah Daws, a spokeswoman for the crime-fighting charity Crimestoppers, told Brand Republic: "The charity Crimestoppers is astonished that a major retailer such as Nike could be this naive and act so irresponsibly with its marketing by naming its products 'Air Stab' and 'Pocketknife'.

"With the current gun and knife epidemic that is sweeping our country we would expect retailers to be taking a more sensitive approach to promoting its products to a young and impressionable market."

The move by Nike comes 11 days after staff at the company's flagship store in London's West End were themselves the victims of knife crime.

Two security guards were attacked at Nike Town with knives as they tried to apprehend a gang of teenage shoplifters, suffering stab wounds to their legs and backs.

Nike's decision to withdraw the Air Stab shoe follows widespread concern about a knife crime epidemic. So far this year, 53 people have been stabbed to death in London alone."

by Darren Davidson Brand Republic 17-Jul-08 (source: Brand Republic)

What is the world coming to??

Ps. Thanks to John Brotherhood for the heads up

11 comments:

Loop said...

I've read a few different versions of this story which all come to slightly different conclusions...

As far as I can work out, it's only in the UK that the shoe is being taken off the shelves (that I'm pretty certain about)?

Is it only the Runnin n Gunnin colourway that's being dropped or the Air Stab completely (this is where the different articles seem to differ).

Plus, as a quickstrike release, isn't it technically discontinued as soon as it's issued?

Joseph 'JP' Patterson said...

wooooooooooooooooow

Anonymous said...

Thugs wont wear stabs, they only wear market 95's and air maxs.

Anonymous said...

^Exactly, never have I seen a goonbag in an Air-Stab.

Hoxton Youth Council said...

Yeah Air stabs are no 110's or TN's !!! Leave Nike in peace!

@witts_bntl said...

in response to Loop..

yes it is only the UK,the Air Stab been taken off the Nike website and taken out of all Nike stores.

As far as I know it's still been sold by other retailers for the moment.

I have searched the Nike UK site and could not find any Air Stabs suggesting the whole line has been pulled.

There have been various retro's of the Stab many of which havn't been quickstrike so there are still plenty of colourways out there.

Queue resellers raising prices on Stabs in the UK??

Matthew Schnickens said...

Might hang onto them Mita Stabs after all.. haha.

Anonymous said...

hahaha!! this has got to be a joke... WTF!! someones been reading the sun too much...

´broken britain´

:`(

Anonymous said...

WASNT THIS ON ATCN LIKE TWO WEEKS AGO?

Slippin

Matthew Schnickens said...

BLTN??, stop watching face.

Surely they could just change the name from Stabs to something else, for UK releases, rather than discontinuing what is a popular shoe.

Anonymous said...

thats the stupidest thing ive ever heard