{"id":141103,"date":"2025-08-13T01:19:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T01:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/141103\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T01:19:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T01:19:15","slug":"designer-apologizes-for-adidas-sandal-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/141103\/","title":{"rendered":"Designer apologizes for Adidas sandal design"},"content":{"rendered":"

MEXICO CITY — Mexican-American clothing designer Willy Chavarria has apologized for an Adidas sandal he created after being accused by Mexican authorities<\/a> of \u201ccultural appropriation\u201d for imitating an Indigenous shoe design. <\/p>\n

The design launched by Adidas, known as the Oaxaca Slip On, is a black sandal with braided leather straps attached to a chunky sports shoe sole. <\/p>\n

Mexican artisans and authorities say the intricate leather braids look strikingly similar to the traditional footwear known as huaraches made by the Zapotec Indigenous people in Oaxaca, produced mostly in the town of Villa Hidalgo Yalalag.<\/p>\n

They have accused the brand and Chavarria of \u201ccultural appropriation\u201d and of copying the design without the permission of the Indigenous community. Authorities were quick to note that cultural Mexican designs have long been copied by major brands before, and said they planned to tighten laws to protect Mexican designs.<\/p>\n

Chavarria responded to mounting criticisms in comments sent to The Associated Press on Tuesday. In a statement addressed to the \u201cpeople of Oaxaca,\u201d he said that the design was intended to \u201cto honor the powerful cultural and artistic spirit of Oaxaca and its creative communities \u2014 a place whose beauty and resistance have inspired me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am deeply sorry that the shoe was appropriated in this design and not developed in direct and meaningful partnership with the Oaxacan community,\u201d Chavarria wrote. \u201cThis falls short of the respect and collaborative approach that Oaxaca, the Zapotec community of Villa Hidalgo Yalalag, and its people deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chavarria is a Mexican-American designer, who has risen to fame for his designs exploring Chicano, or Mexican-American, culture, often mixing Mexican themes with American products. His designs include sweaters reading \u201cChicano\u201d in red, scripted font, and styles with the Mexican flag and cowboy hats reminiscent of northern Mexican culture.<\/p>\n

In recent months, Chavarria also was put in the spotlight for a show at Paris Fashion Week that was intended as criticism of the Trump administration’s deportation policy.<\/p>\n

Chavarria’s comments came days after Adidas made a public apology for the design, and in a statement said it was reaffirming \u201cour commitment to collaborate with Yalalag in a respectful dialogue that honors their cultural legacy.\u201d Last week, in a letter to Oaxacan state officials, the company requested to sit down with local officials and to discuss how it can \u201crepair the damage\u201d to Indigenous populations.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdidas recognizes and values the cultural richness of Mexico\u2019s Indigenous communities and the meaning of their artisanal heritage,\u201d it wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MEXICO CITY — Mexican-American clothing designer Willy Chavarria has apologized for an Adidas sandal he created after being…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":141104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84160,84159,347,64,1033,171,57,20149,1165,50,2068,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-141103","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-84160","9":"tag-apparel-and-accessories-manufacturing","10":"tag-article","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-indigenous-people","16":"tag-lifestyle","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-race-and-ethnicity","19":"tag-world","20":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115018829977541911","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}