Veteran Unveils Star-Spangled Shoe in Wake of Nike Disaster, Will Donate Proceeds
Americans who want to let their feet do the talking in response to Nike’s decision to scrap a shoe that featured a Betsy Ross flag design have an option courtesy of Air Force veteran and Iowa police officer Ron Slagle.
Nike had planned to market a shoe called the Air Max 1 Quick Strike Fourth of July, which included an 18th century U.S. flag design with 13 stars in a circle.
Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, the face of a recent Nike ad campaign, objected, claiming that the flag represented an era of slavery and has been appropriated by white nationalists, The Associated Press reported.
Slagle, a 24-year police veteran from Marion, Iowa, said that anyone wanting to show support for the police — the original target of Kaepernick’s protest — can buy his “Honor and Respect” sneaker, Fox News reported.
“Honor and Respect”. Check out this is great story about a local police officer, and veteran, paying respect in a creative way https://t.co/519okS8I7z
— GrowersAxis (@GrowersAxis) July 3, 2019
Part of the proceeds from the sale of the sneakers, which Slagle designed with a friend, will benefit Code 9 and Blue H.E.L.P, two organizations that help first responders suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
During an appearance Wednesday on “Fox and Friends,” Slagle called Kaepernick’s protests and opposition to Nike’s patriotic shoe a “disgrace to the actual profession.”
“The flag means freedom,” he said. “The flag is a symbol of what we fought for and a lot of Americans are still fighting for today.”
He said the objections to the shoe show how little critics understand history.
“The Betsy Ross objection with the shoe for Nike translates into a loss of history. And I believe at times that’s the biggest loss we have is really knowing what the history about that is,” he said.
Slagle said the Honor and Respect sneaker’s sales benefit all first responders.
“It’s first responders in general; it’s the nurses, it can be a nurse off duty, it can be the paramedics, it can be fire or police,” Slagle said, according to WSFA. “There’s a lot of things that are being seen by these first responders and absorbed that need to be dealt with.”
On the website of the company he formed, Honor and Respect LLC, Slagle described himself as” a police officer in Marion, IA, an Air Force veteran, a coach, father and husband.”
“I am honored to be a part of something much larger than myself, my way of helping the ones who help all of us,” he wrote, adding, “I thought of the way I could help by just being a police officer in the State of Iowa.”
” I wanted to show the rest of the country that by doing something small with big love that you can make a difference. In this profession you never accomplish anything without the help of others,” Slagle wrote.
He said he and his friend created the Honor and Respect shoe “for one purpose and that is to help the first responders so that they can continue to help all of you.”
Deborah Ortiz of Code 9 said that after Slagle’s “Fox and Friends” appearance, demand for the shoe spiked.
“It’s been a little like seriously insane,” Ortize said, KGAN reported. “The good insane. Every email coming in has been that we love the shoes but we want to help our first responders.”
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