Germany-based sportswear giant, Adidas has been facing a lot of flak after its designer Gosha Rubchinskiy’s alleged conversation, containing inappropriate content, with an under-age boy went viral on social media.
The athleisure brand quickly responded to the allegations, and issued a statement citing that the company will investigate the matter thoroughly. However, it said that the designer has denied these allegations.
Here is the conversation that sparked the controversy:
Oh no… Gosha Rubchinskiy what are you doing 🤦♂️
What started out as a discussion about a modeling opportunity for this 16 year old boy quickly turned left as Gosha started sending some very questionable messages…
This is very unfortunate if real. pic.twitter.com/Yt1CKxZvU3
— Streetwear Night Live (@StreetNightLive) December 8, 2018
“I can assure you that Adidas takes any allegation of this nature extremely seriously and at present, we are looking into the claim that has been made. We will share more information as soon as possible.” – A spokesperson from Adidas.
Notably, Rubchinskiy has been associated with the German sportswear retailer since last year. The two first collaborated early in 2017 when the designer’s Fall/Winter 2017 collection was launched in that year.
Since then, the ace-designer partnered with the brand on four occasions; twice last year, both for Rubchinskiy’s Spring/Summer 2018 collection during May and for the Adidas Football plus Gosha Rubchinskiy Season II range of 80s and 90s Soviet-era-inspired wears in June.
Reportedly, the designer’s team responded to the accusations citing that the said messages were meant for a ‘street casting’.
“According to our observation, the messages have been taken out of context and we feel that it was a planned provocation.” – Gosha’s team
It is important to add here that earlier this year, the designer announced to shutter down his eponymous label and went on to work with Adidas for the 2018 FIFA World Cup which was hosted by Russia.
