Since 2018— the year Kanye West stepped up and backed Donald Trump—sales of the artist’s YEEZY Boosts have dropped. According to Highsnobiety, neither the YEEZY Boost 350 V2 “Cream White” and the YEEZY Boost 700 “Mauve” had sold out before being pulled from the website, an all-time first for the hyped artist. Fast-forward to 2020, and it seems like the new YEEZY Boost 350 V2 won’t sell out either.
A month after the controversial rapper was criticised for stating that abolitionist Harriet Tubman “never actually freed slaves” at his first presidential campaign event (which was followed by a statement from the artist’s wife Kim Kardashian West, who purported that West was going through a bipolar relapse), the artist is now facing a new wave of controversy for naming his new designs after Israfil and Asriel, the Islamic angels of music and death, respectively thought as the counterpart of the Judeo-Christian archangels Raphael and “the angel of God” in Hebrew.
The Muslim community immediately flocked to Twitter to point out how both Adidas and West were disrespecting Islam with the tone-deaf shoe names.
Very disrespectful. Adidas is disrespecting Islam. Israfil is one of the four angels in Islam. Shame on @adidasoriginals and @kanyewest
— Tariqul Islam Jewel (@TariqulJewel) August 22, 2020
Latest controversy#KanyeWest new shoe named 'Israfil'
In #Islam, Israfil is known to be the angel that will blow a trumpet to mark the ultimate end of the world.
Naming a shoe after a significant Angel of God, in the Islamic religion, is highly disrespectful.@MuslimAdvocates pic.twitter.com/D2s8qhkGwe— Azra (@azra_hhh) August 19, 2020
@kanyewest words fail to describe your “thought process” but I am appalled at @adidas for not doing it’s due diligence & naming Yeezy Boost 350 V2 Israfil & Yeezy Boost 350 V2 Asriel – names of angels in Islam. #YEEZYBOOST350V2 #Disgraceful #adidasapologize
— Zain Qureshi (@ZQureshi85) August 23, 2020
A petition has already started urging the sportswear giant to change the shoe names. “We demand that Adidas cease all production of this shoe immediately, issue a sincere apology to the Muslim community and consult with a representative of the Muslim community to bridge this learning curve so this doesn’t happen again in the future”, reads the petition. Calling on all Muslims to boycott their products, the petition goes on to deter the sale of products from the brand at any Muslim third party retail shops until they cease “the production of this commodity”.
You can sign the petition here.
