American Company Recalls Boots; Sole Leaves Swastika Imprints
A shoe distributor in City of Industry, Los Angeles County, recalled Thursday a combat boot after a customer found out the sole left swastika imprints.
A customer shared a review picture on Reddit, an online news outlet, showing that the Polar Fox boot left swastika shoe prints.
“There was an angle I didn’t get to see when ordering my new work boots,” the customer posted with the picture, which was viewed and shared more than three million times till Friday and racked up countless comments.
Conal International Trading Inc., the shoe distributor based in California, issued an apology letter and recalled these boots.
“The design was not intentional,” the company wrote on its homepage. “There was never any intention to include any offensive designs on the products we import.”
“The boots have been recalled and we have stopped selling the item,” the company posted.
Meanwhile, Anthony Nguyen, manager of the company, was quoted by The Daily Mail as saying they also asked the designers and wanted to make sure if that design was related to the original meaning of the swastika, a symbol that represents well-being or good fortune in the Hindu and fore the swastika in Buddhism.”
The images of the shoe and a listing of a flurry of comments poking a dig at the design on Amazon, where it was sold, were completely removed by Thursday.
In 2014, Hallmark Cards pulled all rolls of a Hanukkah wrapping paper off its shelves after Californian customers complained they saw swastikas in the print.
news.xinhuanet.com
