Nike receiving backlash for new line of “Satan shoes”

Nike is receiving backlash over the so-called “Satan shoes” released by rapper Nas X. The musician designed a pair of Nike sneakers that apparently include a drop of human blood mixed with ink, of which only 666 pairs are available for purchase, staying in line with the satanic theme.

Nike said Sunday that the company has nothing to do with the release or the design of the shoes. Lil Nas X, whose real name is Montero Lamar Hill, included satanic imagery on the shoes that is coupled with Nas’ new music video, which depicts the singer giving Satan a lap dance.

lil Nas X Satan’s shoe, with actual human blood in them,
Nike too messed up,
Wtf is this, a 666 shoe !! pic.twitter.com/u4El2UncbV

— The retweeter (@guru_kalexis) March 28, 2021

The sneakers and new music video sparked backlash online and calls for boycotts of Nas’ music and Nike. The “Old Town Road” singer suggested he was being bullied by the response and wouldn’t revert back to making clean music.

READ: Nike relies on slave labor for production

“I made the decision to create the music video,” he wrote on social media. “I am an adult. I am not gonna spend my entire career trying to cater to your children. That is your job.”

https://twitter.com/shavar/status/1375981881536118788

Nas acknowledged in January that his core audience is children, according to an interview with NPR. Before releasing his shoes, he appeared with Elmo on “Sesame Street” and wrote a children’s book called “C Is For Country.”

Hill’s infernal footwear coincides with the release of the graphic new music video for his new song “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” which trended at the top of YouTube with more than 25 million views as of Sunday afternoon. Replete with biblical and occult imagery, the video depicts Hill being sexually seduced in the Garden of Eden by Satan in serpentine form, after which the camera cuts to the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is famous for its role in the book of Genesis and the fall of man.

READ: Nike pulls Betsy Ross shoes after called “offensive”

Etched into the tree’s bark is an ancient Greek quote from Plato’s “Symposium” that translates: “Now when our first form had been cut in two, each half in longing for its fellow would come to it again.” The passage is a reference to ancient pagan views of dualism and sexuality, that humans were originally male, female and androgynous, and that homosexuality is an attempt to recover one’s primal nature.

After being stoned to death by judgmental figures ostensibly condemning him for his sexuality, Hill then ascends toward an angelic being in heaven before sliding down to hell on a stripper pole. He discovers the devil sitting on his throne encircled with Latin that translates: “They condemn what they don’t understand.” After giving a lap dance to Satan, who happens to be wearing the expensive Nike shoes he is selling, Hill snaps his neck and assumes his horned crown.

Tens of thousands of people have been contacting Nike through their customer service reps at 1 (800) 806-6453 or chatting online with a representative.

–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice