Niccijade Reeves-Alhark
Staff Reporter
Is it in the best business ethics to sell shoes with alleged human blood in them?
The ‘Satan Shoes’ were announced on March 26th of 2021 in a tweet posted by SAINT, a company that reports on upcoming shoes and streetwear. Satan Shoes are a collaboration between the music artist Lil Nas X, and the art collective MSCHF (pronounced mischief). They are modified Nike Air Max ‘97s with a bronze pentagram pendant with custom engraving on the laces and a pentagram on the inside of the shoe. There are 666 pairs of shoes, referencing the number of the beast and is often associated with the devil, every pair of shoes is labeled a number out of 666. The shoe also has Luke 10:18 written on the same side, a reference to the bible passage “... I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”
The most controversial part about these shoes is the fact that the sole unit, the clear and empty part of the shoe, contains one drop of real human blood alongside 66cc of red ink. This was one of the selling points along with the promotion of Lil Nas X’s new music video for his song Montero (Call Me By Your Name), which had already sparked controversy. In fact, the shoes were announced a day after the music video dropped.
The shoes, according to CNN, sold out in less than a minute when they were released on March 29th. Insider reported that the shoes made about $70,000 in revenue. The shoes were heavily criticized by people all over social media, one person even buying the shoes to just throw them away in a YouTube video. Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, quoted the announcement tweet saying, “...We are in a fight for the soul of our nation.” and claiming that the shoes will have a bad influence on children across America. Lil Nas X tweeted back that she should stop talking about shoes and get back to doing her job of being governor. A priest at Free Chapel held a sermon to discuss the shoes. According to an interview he did with Pink News, Jentezen Franklin believes that Lil Nas X needs Jesus and that he does not know what he might be “playing” within terms of Satan himself. A tweet showed a video that had gone viral on TikTok of Priest Franklin condemning homosexuality, the shoe, and Lil Nas X’s actions over the past week, this tweet was quoted by Lil Nas X, who mentioned the fact that everyone was still in a pandemic and the recent mass shootings that have taken place over the US.
Since the shoes are a modification of the original Nike Air Max ‘97s, many assumed that Nike was a part of the collaboration. Nick Young, for example, tweeted that he was unsure about continuing to wear Nike products after the announcement for the shoes was made. Nike declared in a statement that they were not associated with Lil Nas X or MSCHF and did not take any part in making or releasing the shoes, nor endorsed them.
Nike then filed a lawsuit against MSCHF for trademark infringement. Trademark infringement, as stated by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, “is the unauthorized use of a trademark or service mark on or in connection with goods and/or services in a manner that is likely to cause confusion, deception, or mistake about the source of the goods and/or services.”
Nike suing for trademark infringement means they are asking for an order to make MSCHF stop the release of the shoes, pay the company back for any possible “damage” to their brand, and prevent further use of the Nike SWOOSH. As of April 1st, there was a federal temporary restraining order put on the sale and distribution of the shoes. MSCHF later released an official statement addressing the lawsuit, saying that because of the circumstances they were put under that Lil Nas X would not be able to give away the 666th pair of shoes. They also mentioned that the Satan Shoes were the equivalent to another shoe they produced, the Jesus Shoe, which did not receive as much backlash as the Satan Shoes.
Lil Nas X announced this on his Twitter, apologizing for not legally being able to give away the 666th pair of Satan Shoes because of “crying nerds on the internet”. Despite the setbacks and criticism, only two pairs of the shoes were not sold, the 1st pair and the 666th pair, both of which are in possession of Lil Nas X.
Image Credits: MSCHF
Comments