After the former NFL player and activist Colin Kaepernick, showed his disapproval regarding Nike featuring Betsy Ross flag sneaker, Nike has finally made the decision to cancel their newly sneaker that featured the “Betsy Ross” version of the American flag and features 13 stars in a circle from the late 18th century.
Colin Kaepernick complained that the flag was a throwback to that era of time when prominent Americans held slaves, as per to the Wall Street Journal.
Nike has recently gave a statement to CNN Business where they said, “Nike made the decision to halt distribution of the Air Max 1 Quick Strike Fourth of July based on concerns that it could unintentionally offend and detract from the nation’s patriotic holiday,”
“Nike is a company proud of its American heritage,” the statement added.
As per to the website Sneakernews.com, the shoe was set to be released on Monday for $140 and also have many photos of a shoe that featured the American flag version with 13 stars that are organized in a circle and 13 stripes. It is still not sure that if there is any of the shoes were sold or not.
According to the Smithsonian, this version of the flag was used from the year 1777 to 1795 in the United States.
Nike has also recently decided to stop selling some of their products in China, they also said in a statement that it had made the decision “based on feedback from Chinese consumers.” This made the second occurrence for Nike in a short notice where they have cancelled their product.
Who is Betsy Ross?
Betsy Ross was an American upholsterer who is very popular from the past for making the first American flag.
As per to the Ross family tradition, General George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army along with the two members of a congressional committee named Robert Morris and George Ross, visited Mrs. Ross in the year 1776. Mrs. Ross then persuaded George Washington to alter the shape of the stars in a sketch of a flag he presented her from six-pointed to five-pointed by establishing that it was much easy and quicker to cut the latter.
However, there is no such evidence or any other other recorded verbal practise that can prove her story of the first American flag. But, it appears that the story first appeared in the writings of Ross’ grandson William Canby who published the first ever known written account in the 1870s of the original flag in his one of the writings reference or citations which was titled “The History of the Flag of the United States.”
According to the Canby, they visited and asked his grandmother whether she can make one, Ross at that time replied to Washington that “she did not know but she could try; she had never made one but if the pattern were shown to her she had not doubt of her ability to do it.”
In an interview, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Marc Leepson, author of “Flag: An American Biography” claimed that the story is more like a story than the actual fact. He said, “Every historical study has come to the same conclusion,”
He then further added, “There’s no good historical evidence that she did. But that doesn’t mean she didn’t. There’s simply a lack of documentation. Most historians believe the story is apocryphal.”
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