Following a wave of backlash over an advertisement last week that drew comparisons to racist imagery, Converse’s chief executive told the brand’s employees that he vowed to launch a thorough review of the campaign.
In a memo circulated to the Nike-owned company’s staff, CEO Aaron Cain said following the ad being pulled he would have to make the “needed changes” over the image that conjured similarities to lynching and the Ku Klux Klan.
“The images should not have been used, and we began removing them from all channels as soon as the concern was raised,” Cain said. “The leadership team and I are taking a hard look at our internal review process and the critical lens we apply to our work.”
Converse saw widespread outrage over the ad for the Chuck 70 X sneaker, which showed the bottom half of a person wearing a white garment and holding a black pair of the brand’s shoes. A bright star was illuminated below the person with a single point of the start pointed on the garment, which appeared to resemble a Klan hood. The black shoes being held were also called out on social media for seeming as if a person were being hanged.
The Chuck 70 X was released globally by the brand in late August as a premium update to the iconic Chuck Taylor shoe that got a major overhaul in the 1970s. On September 3, images from the campaign were posted on Converse’s social media account and the person in a set of the images was later revealed to be Karina from South Korean K-pop group aespa.
Karina was named as a Converse global ambassador in June, with the Chuck 70 X as part of a larger “Stars Align With KARINA” campaign that showed her modeling the shoe in a video that prominently featured stars and appeared to have been filmed during a photo shoot for the ad.
Despite the ad first appearing in early September, it received extensive attention on social media last week with calls for a formal explanation from the company about how the imagery could have passed a thorough review process.
After scrubbing the ad from its various channels and social media accounts, Converse issued an apology.
“We’re sorry,” the company said in a statement on Saturday. “We understand why this image is deeply upsetting and recognize that we got this wrong. We removed it from our channels and are working to remove it everywhere it appeared. This should not have happened and we will do better.”
The controversy surrounding the ad comes at a time as Converse navigates one of the rockiest fiscal points in its 118-year history, with 13 straight quarterly declines with a 31 percent drop in revenue in its most recent fiscal calendar.
For the fiscal year 2026, Converse posted $1.174 billion in revenue, a slide of just over 50 percent from the same period in 2023 when the brand reported $2.43 billion. In 2024, revenue slipped to $2.2 billion and $1.7 billion in 2025.
But even with its own performance woes and struggling stock position, its parent appeared to stand behind the brand and in April, after releasing its third quarter earnings report, Nike CEO Elliot Hill dismissed speculation that Converse was up for sale.
“Converse is a beloved brand that serves a distinct consumer through their connection to creative culture, music and youth,” Hill said at the time. “Converse will remain an important part of the Nike, Inc. family, and we are excited about its long-term prospects.”
Cain, meanwhile, will have to steer the company through its latest hurdle and did not say specifically what changes would be made regarding the ad or who within the brand was responsible for it being published.
“We will learn from this, make needed changes, and do better,” Cain said.
The company did not answer questions about what its advertising process is handled and South Korean-based SM Entertainment Group, the management company that represents Karina, has not addressed the controversy that continues to build regarding the campaign.
