This is a follow up from my previous posts about Adidas stealing from Africa :Click here to read how adidas stole fron Ghana
It pays to speak up - people of africa please patent, copy right and protect your heritage.
Dear Mr Kwabena,
Thank you for contacting adidas regarding the Jeremy Scott, Originals by Originals shoe Nizza 2 Hi; and for correcting us on the incorrectly referenced Kente cloth. We regrettably made an error in the copywriting process when describing this shoe. I can assure you that this was not meant to be disrespectful in any way, but a simple human error when creating copy which would be used to describe the shoe.
We have begun to correct this where we can - ie adidas.com/originals, Press Materials etc.
We have also contacted all of the communications and PR managers in our local markets to advise them of the change and act accordingly. Any future stories from adidas should correctly reference the Kente cloth which inspired the design.
We're very proud to work with external design partner Jeremy Scott and also to be able to reference and be inspired by materials, designs and styles from around the world and we're also reverential in crediting the origin of the design correctly.
In this instance, Jeremy Scott sent us the design with the correct name, but in our process of writing the description a typo was made. We have now tried to correct this mistake.
Thank you again for calling this to our attention.
Kind regards,
Tom Ramsden
Senior Communications Manager - adidas Originals
14 comments:
Fantastic brother, fantastic news.
Well done.
Kudos to you!
I think this is great. This is the sort of thing that we should be able to stand for as Ghanaians and Africans. All things being equal, there should be some sort of lawsuit following this to compensate for theft and misrepresentation of intellectual property.
Anyway it's a good start and I hope we can have watchdogs like yourself that can keep the ingenuity of the African intellect rightfully recognized.
Fantastic! And inspiring too. It also pays to tell the truth.
Kudos bro. We finally get the recognition we deserve...Thumbs up!
Great to hear about this. The truth shall always set us FREE.. I'm proud to be a Ghanaian ;)
Thanks man! This is a good job done. When i heard it for the first time i was bored but at least they have apologized and attributed it to error.
You've done well, man. Pround to know you.
glad they acknowledged their mistake and are dealing with it...they know if they don't they'd be in big trouble anyways...but good looking out though man...we should all do likewise to protect our continent's cultural heritage and have others respect what we hold dear.
good outcome..well done!
thanks for all the comments and reposts and thanks to Ghana blogging for getting the message across. This was not about money but about principals. Unfortunately the government of Ghana would not take heed of things like this and properly protect our heritage with laws etc. This will happen again and most people will just watch and get excited that a big company is exploiting our culture. Let us all speak up for the speechless. If someone currently in Ghana can get these emails to the ministry of information and probably culture maybe they will wake up - sadly due to recent experience i do not have much fate in the Government of Ghana who are probably waiting for aid and Western experience to show them how to safe guard their own history. Thanks all and stay Blesssed.
Is that all they did, apologise? are these people paying ghanaaians for the use of Kente our traditional knowledge, or they are just maknig enormous profit from our traditional knowledge? This is our Intellectual property and it is not free, at least theirs is not free.
Well, Adidas. Kentey is a Folklore in Ghana and is protected under Folklore provision of our Copyright Act. I have made contact with the Folklore Board with this matter. We will contact you on how to help you correct the situation and aquire the necessary license to use it. Let me have your email to contact you on this.
Hi there if anyone interested in buying some of the kente adidas sneakers, then visit
www.deafrique.com
Hi there if anyone interested in buying some of the kente adidas sneakers, then visit
www.deafrique.com
Post a Comment