Comments on: An Unintentionally Amusing Response from Adidas Customer Service

By: troy von Tussle

troy von Tussle — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 08:59:42 +0000

To non-vegans, the whole vegan concept only extends to food… and even then, only the most obvious ones.
To questions about gelatine, insec-dyes, lactose, etc. they just haven’t got an answer because they think on the level of ‘meat’ and meat only. Seeing that they are not into veganism, they also do not have the desire to delve into the matter of animal (ab)use and the standard question with meat-eaters is often a bewildered: “Oh, no? Can’t you eat eggs? No milk either? No honey?” And, to make matters more confusing for the poor dears, we add to that list of “restrictive lifestyle” also cosmetics;-)
The fact that vegans also don’t wear leather, silk, wool is to them like having to get to grips with civilisation as they know it being removed from them. Imagine… you haven’t got a clue and stuff all the rubbish inside your body all your life, never asking a question or wondering as to why and where all that we consume comes from and then being confronted with “pesky vegans”;-)

So, the reply from Adidas is a wrong one and not aplicable to clothing. It is hastily copied from a company or one of their devisons (remember, Adidas now also manucfacture, or lisence their brand-name to cosmetics) that has been forced to answer to customers queries after their cosmetics probably. (Probably by some harping vegans;-)
Our veganism is a learning-curve for manufacturers who are only now beginning to see that vegans also spend money.

Anyway… like it or not, though Adidas has been at loggerheads with animal-rights folk for their use of Kangaroo leather, I think it is a bold step forward to start producing vegan shoes. The black vegan Samba with oranage stripes is a gorgeous shoe, that vegans would otherwise not have been able to wear. And let’s face it, the trainers available from VEGETARIAN SHOES or the Vans or the MacBeth’s are a bt tired.

(Co)incidentally, Puma has also announced vegan shoes…

By: Henry

Henry — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 00:52:56 +0000

Yeah, I probably shouldn’t give them such a hard time, but still, Adidas deserves the blame. Their customer service people should at least read the email. I should actually be contacting someone in marketing who perhaps has a deeper connection with the products. If you have any suggestions let me know, thanks!

By: Adey

Adey — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 19:12:19 +0000

Having worked in marketing for my whole career, customer service systems have selections to fire off templated replies to specific question types. It just looks like the operator selected the wrong answer. I wouldn’t completely blame Adidas, I’d blame human error and possibly poor training…

By: Henry

Henry — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 13:08:27 +0000

I’m still waiting on a reply from Adidas. I’ll update when I find out, sorry for the delay guys.

By: JimXVX

JimXVX — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 09:16:09 +0000

There’s no leather in these shoes as far as I can tell, having seen a pair up close & examined them. Just a shame all Adidas shoes are so damn narrow otherwise I’d be getting myself a pair.

By: Henry

Henry — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 14:37:58 +0000

Yeah, it didn’t occur to me but yeah they probably make all sorts of sports related products like deodorant and maybe cologne? Weird, but makes sense.

By: Ty

Ty — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 17:11:06 +0000

Don’t they make deodorant and stuff like that too? Probably a standard reply for questions on that.

By: D. M.

D. M. — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 14:56:10 +0000

That is strange, although I find hard to believe that companies in this day and age would not understand how to answer vegan questions. They are either not interested in answering the questions hoping one buys their products anyway or they don’t know how to use the internet. I’ve had companies reply to my e-mails with “we are not aware if our materials are vegan but we hope you are satisfied with our products” and “what do you mean by vegan?”.