Adidas, at least initially, tried to resist the pressure from animal rights activists and vegan campaigners. In January 2024, a spokesperson for the brand declared that Adidas was so confident in the integrity of its kangaroo leather supply chain that it saw no reason to question it. However, the German company quickly chose to capitulate, announcing that from August 2024 it had stopped sourcing kangaroo leather, and that by 2026 it would no longer produce footwear containing it. Regrettably, Adidas is far from alone in this kind of disavowal that serves no one but marketing departments.
The crux of the matter
The issue is long-standing, and those who follow our reporting will be familiar with it. On one side are vegan organisations loudly proclaiming that “the kangaroo industry slaughters innocent animals”. On the other side are the facts as explained by Australian authorities and KIAA (the Kangaroo Industries Association of Australia): there is no mass slaughter. Each year, the government — advised by scientific experts — sets a quota for the culling of certain overpopulated kangaroo species in order to manage their numbers. Only after this official quota is established do commercial operators enter the picture, making use of the hides. The notion that kangaroos are hunted indiscriminately and immorally across Australia, and that tanneries are the instigators of such hunting, simply does not hold up against the facts.
But they still give in
Yet despite this, brands would rather ban the material altogether than defend their practices. In the past, sportswear labels like Diadora and luxury fashion houses such as Versace and Ferragamo have done just that. More recently, Mizuno and Asics also backed out in quick succession. As often happens in such cases, the numbers explain these decisions. In January 2024, that same Adidas spokesperson noted that football boots made with kangaroo leather uppers accounted for just 0.5% of the brand’s total footwear production. Clearly, for a global company, such a small share isn’t worth the hassle of challenging the vegan activist narrative in the media.
Image via Shutterstock
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