PropertyValue
?:author
?:datePublished
  • 2007-03-30 (xsd:date)
?:headline
  • Are Vans Shoes Designed to 'Stomp on Jews'? (en)
?:inLanguage
?:itemReviewed
?:mentions
?:reviewBody
  • Sometimes even the most innocuous aspects of product design provide fodder for those intent upon finding disturbing meanings worked into the ordinary fabric of things. Procter and Gamble, for instance, has for decades battled the rumor that it supports Satanism, a belief fueled in part by what some were determined to make of the beard curlicues of the company's old-fashioned man in the moon logo, and numerous Canadians thought they spied the Devil in the Queen's portrait on the banknotes issued by that country in 1954. Vans, the athletic shoes most frequently associated with the California skate scene, has inadvertently engendered a similar belief thanks to the design of its product. Those who stare long enough at the sole of a Vans shoe will eventually see a pattern of interlocking six-sided stars in the honeycomb portion that supports the ball of the foot. While six-sided stars have been used for other purposes across the span of human history, that figure is now most commonly regarded as the Star of David, a symbol that represents Judaism. This appearance has led to the development of the product-related rumor that Vans shoes have an anti-Semitic message worked into them, and thus buyers of this type of footwear are, whether they know it or not, participating in walking on the Jews (i.e., symbolically killing them). Our earliest print sighting of this rumor dates to 1998, but the belief was likely around well before that: Yet resemblance between the pattern worked into part of the sole and the Star of David notwithstanding, there is nothing to the rumor that the company's owners hate Jews, are neo-Nazis, or have pulled a fast one on their customers by tricking them into stepping on, and killing a jew (statements that have come to use over the years from those who've encountered the rumor). Rather, the six-sided motif was placed there in all innocence: The honeycomb shape of that portion of the sole provides more secure footing for the skaters who have come to favor this brand (in part for that very reason). Those who worked on the sole's design didn't even recognize the Star of David in what they were fashioning — that this honeycomb or hexagon pattern has come to be regarded as bearing an anti-Semitic message caught them, well, flat-footed. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) says this about the Vans Shoes rumor: (en)
?:reviewRating
rdf:type
?:url