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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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johhnyb | Mar 11, 2012, 12:39 PM EDT

Hi. Good job we've got the Yanks to be offended on our behalf because I haven't heard of anyone in Ireland being offended. Thanks fellas

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bigguy1999 | Mar 11, 2012, 12:35 PM EDT

from my irish american point of view i am offended by these shoes let nike market them in merry old england buy the queen mum a pair just before you push her of the roof of buckingham long live the I.R.A GET THE HELL OUT OF ULSTER.BLACK AND TAN IS NOT A BEER ITS A DRINK MADE BY COMBINING 2 DIFFERENT BEERS ,ALSO ITS NOT A BELFAST BOMBER ITS CALLED AN IRISH CAR BOMB I MANAGED A NITE CLUB IN FLORIDA I PERSONALLY TOOK OFFENCE TO THIS AND WOULD NOT ALLOW THE SHOT TO BE MADE IN MY CLUB,PERIOD I WAS OFFENDED BY IT AND ANY ONE WITH A PROBLEM WITH THAT WAS REMINDED WHERE THE DOOR WAS

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citizen69 | Mar 11, 2012, 12:06 PM EDT

It seems this website is constantly looking for things to be offended about. To say that the naming of these shoes would be the equivalent to Americans as calling them 'Al Qaeda' is rubbish for two reasons. 1. These sneakers are quite clearly inspired & named after a drink which is a half pint of ale topped with a half pint of stout (hence the graphic of a pint glass on the inner sole). The name of this drink came about at least thirty years before the Black & Tan paramilitary unit. 2. There is no-one alive today who suffered at the hands of the B&T's while many thousands of people in America are still living with effects of the terror attacks of 9/11. Although i could understand the offence taken if these training shoes were linked in any way to the B&T's in Ireland , I wonder if you would be as quick to be offended if the name of these training shoes happened to be called IRA's? A group that murdered and destroyed more innocent lives in Ireland than the Black & Tans did.

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citizen69 | Mar 11, 2012, 11:47 AM EDT

bythebay which definition do you think most irish people think of?

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dibble2008 | Mar 11, 2012, 11:40 AM EDT

Its insensitive and an Insult to irish people simple as that.

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seagreen | Mar 11, 2012, 11:29 AM EDT

Black and Tan is something that some marketer heard vaguely about in reference to Ireland. They know nothing more, as in so many other stages of Irish, or American history for that matter. There was probably no malice, just ignorance ! It is like someone saying "get go" instead of "git go" which was/is a daily saying from the US Army for 60 years. As for NIKE. Laying off 3000 people in North America, and moving to China tells me enough about them. Its time for the Irish to get rid of the persecution complex.

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Sparklet | Mar 11, 2012, 10:54 AM EDT

I basically agree with this - but would question the hypocrisy of anyone who objects, but saw no problem with the cocktail that was called Bekfast Bomber or something like that.

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Searlit | Mar 11, 2012, 10:18 AM EDT

I think there d*mn ugly!

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DANNYD1 | Mar 11, 2012, 10:11 AM EDT

I think Nike has it's head up you know where ---and it's dark in there.

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