![\"Kangaroo](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.animals24-7.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Picsart_25-05-15_16-46-47-635-e1747352943936.jpg?ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n(Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n FURTH, Germany\u2013\u2013\u201c<\/strong>Adidas\u2019s chief executive officer Bj\u00f8rn Gulden personally told me this morning that the company has permanently stopped sourcing kangaroo skins for its shoe models,\u201d\u00a0 exulted Animal Wellness Action and Center for A Humane Economy president Wayne Pacelle on May 15,\u00a0 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cBj\u00f8rn Gulden gave me that thrilling news at the Adidas company annual general meeting in F\u00fcrth, \u00a0Germany, \u00a0before a crowd of 250 people,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle said.<\/p>\n \u201cI flew there just to make my case before the company\u2019s leadership, \u00a0and the company\u2019s board and executives gave me plenty of time to make my case,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle continued.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI was accompanied by two dedicated German animal advocates,\u201d\u00a0 Milla Widmer of Munich and Vanessa Hagler of F\u00fcrth,\u00a0 Pacelle mentioned,\u00a0 sharing the credit.<\/p>\n Widmer,\u00a0 representing Plant Based Treaty,\u00a0 was previously noted for leading a protest against a surcharge on oat and soy milk at coffee booths at the 2023 Bonn Climate Conference,\u00a0 hosted by the United Nations.<\/p>\n Witnesses Widmer and Hagler,\u00a0 along with the general meeting audience,\u00a0 served to make the Adidas policy change announcement pertaining to kangaroo leather \u201cofficial,\u201d\u00a0 but that Gulden himself stated the change ensured that Adidas will keep the bargain,\u00a0 unless Adidas sacks Gulden himself.<\/p>\n Adidas,\u00a0 launching a global fad for kangaroo leather soccer shoes with a 1970 endorsement from the Brazilian soccer star Pele (1940-2022),\u00a0 held a 17% share of the global market for athletic shoes before Pacelle in 2019 initiated an international \u201cKangaroos Are Not Shoes\u201d campaign.<\/p>\n (See \u201cKangaroos are not shoes\u201d campaign kicks back against ghost of Pel\u00e9.)<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Adidas CEO Bj\u00f8rn Gulden.<\/strong><\/em> By the end of 2022 the Adidas athletic shoe market share was down to 15.4%.<\/p>\n In dollar terms,\u00a0 that translates into a loss of about $2.8 billion per year.<\/p>\n Adidas booted former chief executive Kasper R\u00f8rsted and in January 2023 brought in Gulden to replace him.<\/p>\n Gulden,\u00a0 a former professional soccer player himself,\u00a0 had enjoyed a highly successful 10-year run as chief executive of Puma,\u00a0 a minor rival whose 2.1% share of the global athletic shoe market is coincidentally close to the market share Adidas lost.<\/p>\n Puma announced that it had quit making and selling kangaroo leather athletic shoes about two months after Gulden jumped to Adidas.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gulden at Adidas must have noticed that in the two years since he left Puma,\u00a0 and Puma abandoned kangaroo leather,\u00a0 the Puma share of the North American athletic shoe and sneaker market more than doubled.<\/p>\n Adidas,\u00a0 once selling 20 different kangaroo leather shoe styles,\u00a0 had already discontinued all kangaroo leather products except two styles of soccer shoes when Gulden took the company entirely out of the kangaroo leather shoe business.<\/p>\n Valued at approximately $138.72 billion in 2024 and projected to reach $210.94 billion by 2032,\u00a0 the global athletic shoe business isn\u2019t hay.<\/p>\n And now an ever larger percentage of it isn\u2019t kangaroo hide,\u00a0 either.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWith Adidas exiting the kangaroo skin business,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle emailed to \u201cKangaroos Are Not Shoes\u201d campaign participants,\u00a0 \u201cwe have shut down the trade in kangaroo skins that had been flowing for decades to the world\u2019s top five athletic shoe brands.<\/p>\n \u201cNow they\u2019ve all decided to use other materials for their shoes. \u00a0First Diadora. \u00a0Then Puma.\u00a0 Then Nike. \u00a0Then New Balance. \u00a0And today Adidas.<\/p>\n (See Kangaroo leather soccer shoes get the boot from Puma & Nike<\/a> and New Balance to hop out of the kangaroo leather shoe business.)<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThese are the top five sellers of soccer shoes in the world.\u00a0 Adidas has been the biggest outlier. \u00a0And it has been the most prominent, \u00a0important, \u00a0and stubborn supporter of the kangaroo skin trade,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle detailed.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cYears ago, \u00a0Adidas worked hard to try to unwind California\u2019s law forbidding the kangaroo parts trade in the state. \u00a0That\u2019s how committed the company was to buying skins for its soccer shoes.\u201d<\/p>\n Pacelle,\u00a0 58,\u00a0 was only five years old when Pel\u00e9,\u00a0 whose actual name was Edson Arantes do Nascimento,\u00a0 then considered the greatest soccer player of all time,\u00a0 was reportedly paid $120,000 to delay the start of the 1970 World Cup quarterfinal between Brazil and Peru by bending down to tie his\u00a0boots in the center circle.<\/p>\n Television cameras displayed Pel\u00e9\u2019s kangaroo leather boots, \u00a0bearing the Adidas logo, \u00a0to all corners of the globe.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom that point on, \u00a0sales of kangaroo leather shoes surged,\u201d\u00a0 a Center for A Humane Economy media release recounted.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Spalding had introduced kangaroo leather cleats to major league baseball before 1890,\u00a0 but at $7.00 a pair,\u00a0 equivalent to nearly $250 in 2025 dollars,\u00a0 the baseball market remained small for the next century-plus,\u00a0 though Mizuno,\u00a0 Rawlings,\u00a0 and other brands continue to offer kangaroo leather baseball shoes.<\/p>\n But worldwide,\u00a0 only 65 million people play baseball and\/or softball.\u00a0 More than 250 million play soccer.<\/p>\n Pel\u00e9 kicked open a global market for kangaroo leather soccer shoes that swiftly expanded what were then only occasional and relatively limited Australian kangaroo culls into a new major bloody industry,\u00a0 accounting,\u00a0 the Center for a Humane Economy alleges,\u00a0 for about 70% of kangaroo culling in recent years.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The one place where Adidas could not cash in on the kangaroo leather athletic shoe boom was California,\u00a0 one of the biggest athletic shoe markets of all,\u00a0 just a few hours\u2019 drive south of the Adidas headquarters in Portland,\u00a0 Oregon.<\/p>\n The California state legislature banned imports of kangaroo products and byproducts in 1971.<\/p>\n The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in 1974 followed up by listing three kangaroo species as \u201cthreatened,\u201d\u00a0 prohibiting imports of any \u201clookalike\u201d kangaroo products and byproducts.<\/p>\n Twenty-one years of litigation and lobbying by Adidas and the Australian government later,\u00a0 the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in 1995 removed the three kangaroo species from protection.<\/p>\n Kangaroo leather shoes returned to the U.S. market,\u00a0 but still not to California\u2013\u2013not legally,\u00a0 anyhow,\u00a0 until in October 2007 then-California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed into law a bill lifting the 1971 ban.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWhen we started,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle said, \u00a0\u201ccommercial shooters in Australia were massacring two million kangaroos every year and orphaning hundreds of thousands of joeys. \u00a0Company by company,\u00a0 we are shutting down key foreign markets that have long been the lifeblood of the night-time shooting crews that slay kangaroos and orphan the young.<\/p>\n \u201cGreat partners like Their Turn,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle continued,\u00a0 with a nod toward Their Turn founder Donny Moss of New York City,\u00a0 \u201chave conducted dozens of protests at Adidas stores to let them know there would be no peace until the company changed its ways.<\/p>\n \u201cThe kangaroo kill has already dropped from two million to 1.3 million, \u00a0and as these relatively new corporate policies take full effect and dry up funding for the shooters, \u00a0that kill will decline,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle projected,\u00a0 contending that,\u00a0 \u201cThe killings have always been about money. \u00a0The idea that it was done for population control has been a ruse from the get-go.<\/p>\nAdidas was on the losing end of a $2.8 billion penalty kick<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nWitnesses<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
(Wikipedia photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nA tale of two CEOs<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nPuma pounced<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nThe five top sellers<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nPel\u00e9 kicked off the kangaroo leather shoe fad<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nShoe industry accounted for 70% of kangaroo kills<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nBut California said no<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n35% drop in kangaroo culls<\/h2>\n