Nike and Adidas Among Brands Blasted For Selling Kangaroo Leather Shoes

Around 2 million kangaroos are hunted every year to help produce shoes made from kangaroo skin, as a new bill to outlaw their sale is introduced by U.S. lawmakers.

The world’s biggest sport brands including Nike, Puma, and Adidas, have been condemned for selling kangaroo leather shoes, as U.S. lawmakers introduce a bill to outlaw their sale.

Kangaroo skin is currently used by the companies to produce soccer shoes known as “cleats”.

But campaigners warn that the kangaroo leather trade is helping to fuel the slaughter of around 2 million kangaroos every year.

Consumers are likely to be outraged to hear that kangaroos - including their joeys - are shot or bludgeoned to death, especially after the global community came together to show their support for Australia's wildlife during last year’s devastating wildfires. 

"[We] worked with so many teams on the ground in Australia in 2020 rescuing and rehabilitating kangaroos injured by the devastating bushfires,” said SPCA International Executive Director Meredith Ayan. “Kangaroos do not deserve to go through that trauma, be nursed back to health and released to the wild only to be killed in a brutal commercial hunt."

Nike, Puma, Adidas, Mizuno, and New Balance are among the companies said to be supporting - and profiting - from the cruel kangaroo slaughter which campaigners say is “the world’s largest commercial slaughter of terrestrial wildlife”. 

The hunt results in entire families of kangaroos being shot in the dead of night with night-vision rifle scopes. And according to Australia's kangaroo killing guidelines, slaughtered female kangaroos should be checked for joeys in their pouches - who should be bludgeoned to death if found. 

Amid the outrage, U.S. lawmakers have now introduced a new bill that will outlaw the sale of kangaroo body parts in the U.S. 

The Kangaroo Protection Act, introduced last week by Representatives Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Penn, would ban kangaroo leather products, and encourage brands to construct ‘cleats’ from the many alternative fabrics available. 

"Commercial shooters kill roughly two million wild kangaroos a year to profit from the trade in their skins, despite the availability of alternative fabrics that are of similar or better quality. While California has banned the sale of kangaroo products, enforcement of this inhumane practice is lacking," said Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif. "I'm proud to stand against kangaroo trafficking and have introduced the Kangaroo Protection Act to make it illegal to exploit kangaroos in the United States and impose penalties for violations."

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