COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE | JUNE 2, 2021

I Used to Promote Skechers. Now I’m Calling Out Their Support of Hate Instead.

As a travel coordinator and property consultant I love recommending great products to my clients.

I’m proud to say that I have a number of them—over 16,000 subscribers to a channel of my travel videos. This past year, we garnered over a million views.

In many of these videos, I’m wearing, and recommending, Skechers.

Chris in Skechers as she explores ancient ruins in Southern Italy

I dive through ancient ruined houses and explore cobblestoned streets and vias in historic centers all over Italy and end up walking long distances on uneven ground, all in an effort to achieve the dreams of my clients who want to better understand this world and all people in it.

And when I find a product that helps me do this better, I promote it like mad. That’s what I have been doing with Skechers.

There are a lot of shoemakers out there who create quality products and do not trash people.

So imagine what a slap in the face it was to see that Skechers has been financing hate against my religion in the pages of A360 Media magazines like Us Weekly, In Touch and National Enquirer.

Visiting war memorials in Calabria, Italy

By financing these attacks through their advertising dollars, Skechers is complicit in spreading hate against me and all members of my religion—including those of us who are their customers. At best they are completely socially irresponsible, and at worst outright bigots themselves.

I wrote to Skechers. I have not heard back.

But I cannot and will not, with my hard-earned dollars, continue to support bigots who attack my, or any, religion. I will no longer be recommending Skechers shoes to my clients nor wearing them in my promotional photographs or videos. In fact, I will make it a point to promote their competitors instead.

Integrity and honesty appear to be trending right now.

There are a lot of shoemakers out there who create quality products and do not trash people. There are some who are brave and intelligent enough to abide by high values, not hide behind trashy gossip rags to push hate.

I will find another high-quality shoe manufacturer and I will promote them like mad. Skechers can continue to cater to the dregs of society who probably never buy their shoes anyway.

Integrity and honesty appear to be trending right now. People are sick and tired of watching good people being trashed for a few paltry bucks. And they see through lies and despise the liars.

Skechers, perhaps your time and money would be well spent looking into the background of your current “marketing executives.”

You may sell more shoes if you did it without the hate.

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AUTHOR

Chris Ellis

Chris Ellis is an author, music instructor and professional blogger. Chris has written extensively as a guest blogger and has been the top blogger for lifehack.org. She lives in San Jose, California with her husband and generously proportioned Chihuahua, Little.

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