Fact Check: Campus Shoes banned tricolour-themed shoes two years ago but the product goes viral again
Campus Shoes, an Indian sports and athleisure footwear brand, is facing criticism after pictures of a shoe with the Indian tricolor marked on its soles went viral over the internet. Netizens are boycotting the brand as the design violates the Indian Flag Code, 2002.
Campus Shoes, an Indian sports and athleisure footwear brand, is facing criticism after pictures of a shoe with the Indian tricolor marked on its soles went viral over the internet. Netizens are boycotting the brand as the design violates the Indian Flag Code, 2002.
A netizen on Twitter wrote, “Unacceptable move from Campus Shoes”, along with the hashtag “#boycottcampus”
FACT CHECK:
The fact check team ran a keyword search on Twitter and found several tweets from 2021 carrying similar images. This clearly indicated that this was not a recent design from Campus Shoes.
Many people shared images of the shoes and requested a ban against the product as they found it disrespectful and that it hurt the sentiments of the citizens. One such Twitter user wrote, “Campus Shoes brand is insulting our National Flag by putting on his shoes sole (sic).”
In reply to such tweets, Campus Shoes issued an apology statement in November 2021. The brand stated that keeping the sentiments of customers and respect for the nation in mind, the product had been withdrawn from all their directly controlled channels.
Now that the pictures of the shoe went viral again, the brand issued another apology statement on February 10, 2023. The label apologized for any sentiments that have been hurt because of the unintentional usage of certain colours in their product and clarified that the product was discontinued a long time back and appropriate measures were taken to withdraw the particular collection from dealers and authorized stores.
Thus, it is clear that old pictures of the Campus Shoes’ tricolor-themed footwear, which was discontinued two years ago, are viral again.