Adidas Will Provide Support to Schools That Want to Change Native Mascots

Adidas earlier on Thursday announced that it would partner with any high school across the United States that wanted to change its Native American-themed mascot or logo.

Company officials also pledged to provide financial support to ensure the cost of changing is not prohibitive.

Approximately 40 high schools in Massachusetts still use Native American mascots, nicknames, or logos, according to Peter Sanfaçon, founder of the New England Anti-Mascot Coalition.

“If you’re living in a society that devalues your culture or perpetuates stereotypes, you may be devaluing yourself”, Obama said at the White House Tribal Nations Conference. “We are committed to continuing a dialogue to look at the issue of Native images in sports and work to find solutions”. Young athletes have hope, they have desire and they have a will to win. “And if they want to make a change and we can help, then we want to help”, the company said. “I don’t know if Adidas made the same offer to a certain National Football League team here in Washington”, he said.

The advocacy group says about a dozen schools have dropped Native mascots over the past two years and another 20 are considering a change. The company stressed the initiative is limited to high schools and should not be seen as an attempt to compel professional sports franchises to change their team names, the Associated Press reported.

The NFL’s Washington-based franchise responded to adidas’ efforts with a strongly worded statement – similar to the manner in which they recently attacked opposition to their trademarks by citing a long list of other offensive trademarks.

With all due respect to anyone that believes all Native American imagery should be disconnected from athletic teams, using the term “Warriors” or “Indians” would appear to have a different connotation than “Redskins”. “Adidas makes hundreds of millions of dollars selling uniforms to teams like the Chicago Blackhawks and the Golden State Warriors, while profiting off sales of fan apparel for the Cleveland Indians, Florida State Seminoles, Atlanta Braves and many other like-named teams”.

But maybe it’s not too big a stretch when you consider that sporting events are where these high-school mascots become most visible.

In Oregon, the state Board of Education in 2012 ordered high schools to ban such mascots or risk losing public funding.