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Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > Periscope > What were Nike thinking, marketing Black and Tan sneakers for St. Patrick's Day? Irish Americans surely deserved better than that

Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

What were Nike thinking, marketing Black and Tan sneakers for St. Patrick's Day? Irish Americans surely deserved better than that

Posted on Sunday, March 11, 2012 at 10:19 AM

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What were Nike thinking?

They have a $3 billion dollar budget worldwide for marketing and the best they can come up with for the Irish this St. Patrick's Day is the 'Black and Tan' sneaker.

Did no one at this giant company just check on Google exactly what most Irish relate the term Black and Tan to?

It was the equivalent of Al-Qaeda for a generation of Irish during the War of Independence. A bunch of merciless thugs and scum, many from British prisons, released on the Irish to kill and shoot as many as possible and terrorize them into subjection.

Surely not a fitting name for a St.Patrick's Day-themed pair of sneakers?

Nike made the elementary mistake of linking their product to a drink called Black and Tan on sale in some bars. But the drink has nothing like the world wide reputation or impact that the original term does.
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It is a marketing strategy straight out of the "Nova," the car marketed in Hispanic countries which means "no go," and the Ford Probe, which reminded every woman of a gynecological inspection.

It is up there with Umbro marketing Zyklon runners a few years back in Israel -- Zyklon B was the form of gas that killed millions of innocent Jews in the Holocaust.

The sheen has come off Nike in recent years with lots of issues around child labor in their Far East sweat shops.

This latest gaffe will certainly not help with Irish Americans and neither should it.

Nike should just do it -- get rid of these offensive sneakers.

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39 comments

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IrelandNorth | Mar 12, 2012, 07:26 AM EDT

Black 'n' Tan's uniforms were actually bottle green RIC police uniforms and khaki British army regular uniform - slacks or tunics - vice versa. So, unless these sneakers are green 'n' khaki, I wouldn't get to exercised about it. Even if they coincidentally commemorate a satorially challenged bunch of WWI demobbed desperados of British army ex-servicemen unleashed on Ireland as revenge for 1916.

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RedBranch | Mar 12, 2012, 07:09 AM EDT

Yawn! Keep up with the coat-dragging Niall, shame you don't see something offensive in the Notre Dame 'Fighting Irish' mascot/logo. A diminutive ape like caricatur in pugnatious pose and might those be tan shoes he's wearing....

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Towngate | Mar 12, 2012, 05:06 AM EDT

Nill, a chara: Shame you didn't have the gumption to accept my comment on this small-minded and inflammatory Post. I will take satisfaction from the drubbing you have taken from the other Commenters.

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Ballyphehane1 | Mar 12, 2012, 12:21 AM EDT

I think I'm more offended by the black and tan drink. What a waste of a good pint of Murphys/Guinness to be sullied with an ale... (just joking by the way, although the idea of it kind of turns my stomach - each to their own I suppose)... I agree with some of the other people here though - Irish Central seems to be trying to incite outrage these days. I don't understand why. It's starting to get boring.

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Mccusk | Mar 11, 2012, 11:42 PM EDT

Niall, we can do without getting too worked up about this, I couldn't care les about it. It's just a shoe. Plenty of Irish pub sell black and tan, as in it written on the menu, but we only feign outrage when it's a multinational?

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seamus60 | Mar 11, 2012, 10:29 PM EDT

Could have been much worse. Just imagine they had launched them from Croagh Park the day of the queens visit. As if that wasn`t offensive enough.

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kimmie0 | Mar 11, 2012, 10:24 PM EDT

I still miss Ben & Jerry's Black&Tan Ice cream.... OMG it was good... stout flavored ice cream swirled with a vanilla twist... it was awesome.... and pulled off the market because of some being offended of the association with the olden days... :-(

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barneyjo | Mar 11, 2012, 07:06 PM EDT

Mr O'Dowd, is it the case that even in the land of the free that "WASPS" still have a very potent sting? :)

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seanomelb | Mar 11, 2012, 06:17 PM EDT

byethebay and citizen69 are common bedfellows in their insensitivity to anything Irish.They are the archetypal defenders of the west Brit mindset

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merefalow | Mar 11, 2012, 03:57 PM EDT

what a dickhead researcher,must be university educated,only good for walking through dogs...

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mandrake | Mar 11, 2012, 03:18 PM EDT

If they release these sneakers in Ireland they will lose a lot of customers and probably a few stores.

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citizen69 | Mar 11, 2012, 02:01 PM EDT

@Bythebay: the comment below attributed to me which asked you about definition wasn't actually written or posted by me! Another gremlin (or should that be leprechaun)in machine of IrishCentral!

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bob40wil | Mar 11, 2012, 01:55 PM EDT

They are shoes, no more, no less. I'm doubtful they were brought out just to tick off the Irish.

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johhnyb | Mar 11, 2012, 12:43 PM EDT

By the way, bigguy 1999, the Queen mother died in 2002, so you're probably too late to push her off a roof!

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Jimsales74 | Mar 11, 2012, 12:42 PM EDT

First I hate Nike philosophically, I don't buy em, and never will. Nevertheless, While I've heard of the other Black and Tan, nobody attacks Syracuse University because they are the Orange men. We are Yanks--as you like to let us know constantly--and while we speak the same language, we speak different bits of it. Here, a Black and Tan is, in my opinion, simply a drink for people who can't make up their minds. Finally, Here, we have Blacks, and Jews, and Latinos who are constantly busy looking for slights whether they exist or not, I should like to think that we are above that sort of nonsense.

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