Nike Pulls Shoes Featuring Betsy Ross Flag Over Concerns About Racist Symbolism

Nike has recalled a shoe that was set to hit the market to commemorate July 4, citing concerns over the historic version of the U.S. flag that appears on the back of the red, white and blue sneaker.

“Nike has chosen not to release the Air Max 1 Quick Strike Fourth of July as it featured an old version of the American flag,” Nike told NPR on Tuesday. The company did not immediately respond to questions about its concerns and the intention behind the original design.

The special Air Max 1 design — which includes an embroidery of the famous “Betsy Ross” flag featuring 13 stars for the original colonies — drew complaints that it celebrated an era of the United States when slavery was legal and commonplace.

Those complaining about the flag included activist and former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, according to The Wall Street Journal. The newspaper says Kaepernick asked Nike to reconsider the design out of concern that it would send the wrong message about race in the modern U.S.

Kaepernick has not commented publicly about the controversy; Know Your Rights Campaign retweeted several messages about Nike’s decision, including one that used the Twitter hashtag,

Nike’s prerelease images of the shoe sparked commentary and debate last week. “I wasn’t free yet,” reads one comment on Sneaker News’ Instagram post about the shoe’s release. Other responses called them “Air Slavery.” But some commenters said they view the symbol only as evoking the American Revolution.

Nike’s sudden decision to withdraw the shoes drew an even bigger response.

“It’s a good thing Nike only wants to sell sneakers to people who hate the American flag,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, wrote in reply to the Journal’s article on Kaepernick’s role in the decision.

By the time Nike decided to pull the shoes, the company had already shipped the sneakers to retailers ahead of a July 1 release date. The controversy immediately sent the shoe into collectible territory, with its price soaring overnight. While the original suggested retail was $140, the sneaker was selling for around $2,500 on the clothing site StockX Tuesday morning.

As the sneaker magazine Sole Collector notes, the shoes were pulled from Nike’s new launch site on June 26, shortly after the first images of the sneaker were released. But at the time, a company representative suggested they would still be available at shoe stores.

Nike’s about-face drew a sharp rebuke from Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who announced that his state will no longer offer tax incentives to Nike as part of its attempt to lure the company to invest in an operation in Goodyear, Ariz.

“We don’t need to suck up to companies that consciously denigrate our nation’s history,” Ducey said in a series of tweets about his decision.

The historic flag’s basic design was codified in June of 1777, when the Continental Congress adopted a resolution calling for a national flag, comprising 13 stripes and 13 stars, “white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”

In recent years, right-wing and extremist groups have attempted to adopt the Betsy Ross flag. In 2016, then-candidate Trump’s supporters displayed it alongside “Make America Great Again” banners at a high school football game, leading a Michigan school superintendent to apologize to anyone who was offended. The official called the flag “a symbol of “exclusion and hate.”

Despite the flag’s name, Betsy Ross’s role in designing and creating the Revolution-era flag “is largely fictitious,” according to the National Archives.

Explaining how Ross came to be credited with making the flag, the Archives explains: “It is likely that her grandson, William J. Canby, developed the story in the 1870s and that her only connection to the American flag was as a Philadelphia flag maker who sewed flags and banners for the United States military.”

But in paintings and as a matter of legend, Ross is credited with making the flag in 1776, when the United States was fighting to break away from the British empire. A 1917 book that examined how Ross became interwoven with the story of the flag calls the standard “our beautiful emblem of liberty.”

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