Back in 2010 Converse, the footwear brand released the above labeled shoes. Although, i myself being a hindu and being born in the country which was couple of years back the only hindu nation in the world have some sort of flexibility. We have somehow have some sort of tolerance towards the joke that the westerners play. But, not all of us including the neighbouring India would welcome such impractical joke.
It sparked a controversy and the company later issued a statement saying that the offence was unintentional and withdrawn the shoes from sales in the United States.But, the damage was done. They must have shipped to other destination and maybe many are wearing it and showing of their pride possession. Now, if any radical hindu devotee happens to see it what would be the outcome. A fight possibly leading to murder of one as well. Converse has done a dumb job by making this shoes , although so far there has not been any incident of crime or murder. But if it happens no one is to blame but Converse team.
A Converse spokesman said, “We apologize for the unintentional offence and have decided to immediately discontinue the sales of the Jimi Hendrix/Axis shoes.”
In an email to Beth Kulkarni, of the Hindus of Greater Houston, who protested to Converse, the company spokesman wrote: “Converse designed the Converse Chuck Taylor Jimi Hendrix/Axis shoe to demonstrate our support of music culture and to celebrate the contributions of the global music icon, Jimi Hendri. With approval of the Hendrix estate, we applied artwork taken directly from the 1967 Axis: Bold as Love album cover. The cover art included images of Hindu deities. Our ambitions were to honor the music of Jimi Hendrix. It was not our intent to offend Hindu culture by having Hindu deities on footwear.”
The shoes, which sold for $60 on Zappos, Eastbay and the Converse websites, are no longer available.
Looks as if the mockery won’t stop
until we take actions together
Now, that converse thing was like a decade old thing. Recently i was surfing through some random stuff in pinterest …..then BAMMMM…another poster replacing the head of Krishna in his Vishvarupa with Jimi Hendrix’s head.
Vishvarupa is considered the supreme form of Vishnu, where the whole Universe is described as contained in him.Hindus believe in it and I don’t think any other person or institute has any right to alter it by any means. In Hinduism God is eternal and Jimi Hendrix was just a mortal man. How, they can compare these two? Does the site owner or the company’s owner wishes to have a death match. If so, there are many who would line up for this event.
Looks, as if the more I dig in the more I come up with this.The above poster is found at theblacklightzone.com at 12$ and 99 cents.What a joke towards the people who really honor and believe to be a supreme God. Companies like these should be banned from producing such holy articles.
I plead to all those reading this if we can stand against such mockery then please come forward and lets act not only to respect ourself but also to send a clear message as a warning shot not to repeat the same blunder mistake. They should understand in a clear Hindu language and the photo that they have cropped that Vishvarupa is also interpreted as “the story of evolution,” as the individual evolves in this world doing more and more with time. The Vishvarupa Darshan is a cosmic representation of gods and goddesses, sages and asuras, good and the bad as we perceive in our own particular perspective of existence in this world.
