The bipartisan bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives would ban the sale of kangaroo body parts in the U.S., including on footwear and apparel. Months ago, Puma and Nike announced they would halt further sourcing of kangaroo skins for their respective soccer boots. The Center for a Humane Economy (CHE) and other animal-welfare groups have continued to lobby Adidas, Mizuno and New Balance to cease any use of kangaroo skins in their footwear.
The Kangaroo Protection Act, if passed into law by both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, will cut off the U.S. market for Australian commercial shooters and global athletic shoe companies who have, according to the Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy, been driving the slaughter of as many as two million kangaroos annually.
Leading the way, Oregon state legislators took aim at kangaroo leather in athletic shoes in January of this year.
Over the weekend, Australian animal advocates staged a protest at the flagship Adidas store in Sydney, and another animal rights group conducted a series of protests at flagship Adidas stores in New York City.
Diadora was the first sportswear company to stop using kangaroo skin in 2020, a year after the CHE issued a list of 72 kangaroo skin soccer shoes from Adidas, Lotto, Mizuno, New Balance, Nike, Pantofolo d’Oro, Puma, and Umbro. The number of shoes using kangaroo skin has dropped dramatically since the launch of The Center’s “Kangaroos Are Not Shoes Campaign,” and there is now a dedicated website on the issue at www.KangaroosAreNotShoes.org.
There have recently been encouraging discussions between CHE representatives and New Balance, the last major U.S. athletic brand relying on kangaroo skins, to cease shoe styles that utilize them.
