Converse apologized after two ad campaign images drew backlash on social media for resembling Ku Klux Klan hoods and lynching imagery, but one of the disputed photos was still live on the brand’s Threads account as of writing. The company said it had removed the image from its channels and was working to take it down everywhere it appeared.
The controversy centered on Karina of Aespa, who appeared in a campaign for the Chuck 70 X and Run Star Crush sneakers. In the photo, she stood inside a Converse star and held two shoes on her left side. That image became one of the flashpoints this week after users began posting side-by-side criticism and pushing the comparison wider across Threads.
Converse’s response was blunt. “We’re sorry. We understand why this image is deeply upsetting and recognize that we got this wrong,” the company said. It added that the photo “should not have happened” and promised to “do better.” The apology came after a separate Converse x Palmes image from the Jack Purcell PDM sneaker collection also came under fire, giving the brand two separate campaign problems to answer at once.
That second image, shared to the Converse Malaysia Instagram account earlier this month, showed a man climbing a ladder while holding shoes dangling from a tree, with another man looking on. One Threads post from Thursday captured the reaction in plain terms, calling out “The KKK” and describing the image as “Abhorrent. Unfathomable. Repugnant.” Another user wrote that the silhouette, tree, ladder and figure in the distance made the comparison impossible to ignore.
The backlash lands in a country where the symbols being invoked are not abstract. The Ku Klux Klan formed in 1865 and used masks, white hoods and organized violence to suppress Black civil rights, voting and economic progress. Converse has long worked with Black athletes, entertainers and brand ambassadors, including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Kelly Oubre Jr., Tyler, The Creator, Dwyane Wade, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan, which made the imagery sting all the more for critics. The company now says it is pulling the photo down wherever it appears, but the remaining post on Threads shows how incomplete that cleanup still is. The next question is no longer whether Converse will apologize again; it is whether the brand can explain how these images made it out at all.
