In March, following allegations of workplace abuse at the artist Tom Sachs‘s studio, Nike was pressured to drop the artist. Now it looks like the company has.
“We are not working with Tom’s studio at this time and have no scheduled release date,” a Nike representative said. Complexwho first reported the story, though some of his designs were due out this year.
Sachs’ Mars Yard shoes, first released in 2012, can fetch up to $10,000 on the resale market. The popular sneaker information source Sole Retriever reported that Nike plans to release a third edition of the shoes, Mars Yard 3.0, during the holidays This year.
But Nike’s recent statement rules that out and suggests the company may have ended its relationship with Sachs for good.
Representatives for Sachs declined to comment. Nike did not immediately respond to requests from Artnet News.
The artist’s latest offering from Nike arrived in February, with a new “Field Brown” color scheme for his General purpose shoefirst released in the summer of 2022 as a cheaper, more daily alternative to the Mars Yard series.
A white and gray version with green and yellow accents was revealed in November, with an expected release last month, according to Single collector, just after the allegations emerged. The shoe now appears to have been scrapped.
Tom Sachs NikeCraft General Purpose Shoe in Dark Sulfur. Photo courtesy of Nike.
The complaints against Sachs include allegations of verbal abuse and sexual harassment. Former employees have also said that Sachs and his wife, Sarah Hoover, subjected them to degrading labor for extremely low wages.
The problems were not limited to workers at Sachs’ studio. At least one Nike employee asked not to work with the artist, citing his allegedly sexist and inappropriate behavior. The entertainer was also accused – and denied – of wearing only his underwear during a Zoom meeting with Nike executives.
Nike also had to modify Sachs’ NikeCraft Mars Yard 2.0 shoe boxes just before release to remove the Constantin Brancusi quotes “work like a slave, command like a king, create like a god” on the lid.
A video of Sachs—A hero’s journeycreated for the 2017 release of the Mars Yard 2.0 sneaker– followed an aspiring studio assistant through “indeterminate and insane work. No salary. Silence.” In another, employees are shown repeatedly emptying litter boxes. A third showed Sachs throwing a typewriter through a wall where it hit two workers.
Even the press for its general purpose shoe hinted at abuse. While promoting the new line, the artist shared “stories about bringing tears to several people on his design team of having to do it over and over again to get that tiny detail just right,” according to Squire.
Over the years, the artist’s Nike Craft line has released more than 30 items of clothing and accessories, including t-shirts, coats, various bags and fanny packs, and down shorts.
Artist Corey Escoto affixed this call for Nike to drop Tom Sachs off a truck on Broadway in Tribeca. Photo by wetlegz.
The sneaker world is watching Nike closely to see how the company would respond to allegations against Sachs, who is white, after he cut ties with black NBA star Kyrie Irving for sharing links to an anti-Semitic film on social media. . An artist recorded a call to “Just Drop Him” with the Nike swoosh on a white truck in Lower Manhattan, and in the artist’s handwriting.
Concerns about working conditions under Sachs and Hoover were first raised after they published a job offer for an assistant it was widely ridiculed.
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