Adidas’ Olympic shoe relaunch with supermodel Bella Hadid deserves a trophy for antisemitism, according to some Jewish groups. Hadid stars in a campaign for the relaunch of the “coveted classic” SL72 retro sneaker from the 1972 Munich Olympics, where a Palestinian militant group killed 11 Israeli athletes and a German police officer. Hadid’s father is Palestinian, and both she and her supermodel sister, Gigi, are vocal in their support for Palestinian statehood. The American Jewish Committee, a Jewish civil rights group, condemned the campaign in a post on X on Thursday. “For Adidas to pick a vocal anti-Israel model to recall this dark Olympics is either a massive oversight or intentionally inflammatory,” the AJC wrote. “Neither is acceptable.” Adidas apologized for “any upset or distress caused” by the ad. “As a result, we are revising the remainder of the campaign.” The company’s edits include scrubbing Hadid’s images from posts on their X and Instagram accounts, although as of Friday morning, she is still featured on the website for the shoes.
