Nike Native American Shoes

Have you heard about the new Nike Air Native N7 shoe made for Native Americans? Well, apparently word has made it to the International Herald Tribune.

Here’s what IHT says:

But along with its trademarked swoosh, the Nike Air Native N7 features feathers and arrowheads, which bloggers have found off-putting.

“If this isn’t an example of corporate manipulation of race, I don’t know what is,” wrote one of about 200 readers commenting online about an article that appeared in The Rapid City Journal in South Dakota. There, the response to the article was split.

I remember when I read this a few weeks ago. My first thought was that if I was Native American, I would be profoundly offended by this. In my second thought, I wondered when they were going to come out with the Nike Whitey Whoosh, or a Nike Caucasion Clodhopper, for us palefaces.

Maybe it’s just me, but I find racial pandering to any ethnicity to be disgusting. Too many people and organizations are obsessed with that which separates, divides and draws Americans apart. Anyone born in this country is an American; someone who came here from another country and was naturalized could be considered a hyphenated American, but if we were born here, we’re native to this country. And incidentally, unless we plan on moving to another country, we should all be pulling for this one and acting like we’re on the same team. I don’t care what someone’s skin color or ancestry is; if we’re Americans we’re on the same team. Besides, we’re all children of God, with equal standing in His eyes.

The Rapid City Journal also sheds this light:

Nike said it is the first time it has designed a shoe for a specific race or ethnicity. It said all profits from the sale of the shoe will be reinvested in health programs for tribal lands, where problems with obesity, diabetes and related conditions are near epidemic levels in some tribes.

This is another of the things I would have found offensive when I read this article. If I was a Native American, I’d probably take it like this: “So Nike thinks I’m such a fat, lazy Twinkie-eating slob that I need a special shoe to motivate me to run a few laps around the res? No thanks!”

The article says “the shoes have an $80 suggested retail price and will be sold to the Native American groups for $42.80.” Some $40 shoes seems to make a lot of sense, when reservations like Pine Ridge make up the poorest areas in the nation.

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