jay-z elephant sneakers

Jay-Z Proudly Sports Shoes Made from Elephant Skin

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by Ashlee Piper March 3, 2013
Categories: Animals, Fashion
Tags: , .
Photo: PMK, Adam Glanzman / Flickr

Nary days after Beyonce was slammed by PETA for her ownership of PMK shoes crafted from four different animals, and a few weeks after she was criticized for her Superbowl bodysuit of iguana and python, her hubby is now taking heat for perhaps the most egregious of their fashion stunts at the expense of animals.

Paparazzi photos show Jay-Z on many occasions proudly sporting PMK Brooklyn Zoo Air Jordans which are made from ten animal skins, including elephant. The bespoke sneakers, which run about $2,500 a pair, are aptly titled, as their materials listing reads like an exotic menagerie: Stingray, anaconda, ostrich, crocodile, calf, alligator, boa, python, lizard, and perhaps most maddening of all, elephant.

Despite fan outcry for his and Beyonce’s blatant disregard for animal welfare, Jay-Z posted a picture on his blog Life And Times of one of the shoes on a podium in his house accompanied by the caption, ‘Condos in my condo’. The sneakers, pictured below, market all of the skins used, with the elephant featured prominently in the advertisement.

On to the Next One: Jay-Z Proudly Sports Shoes Made From Elephant

While the thought of wearing elephant skin, or any animal skin for that matter, is distressing, perhaps more shocking is that it is actually legal to buy and sell the hides under certain conditions laid out in the Convention Of International Treaty Of Endangered Species (CITES). Items like boots, belts, and even pool cues and gun holsters made of elephant can be readily found on sites like eBay, and online retailers who sell elephant hides like Roje Exotic American Leathers, equate elephant culling in Africa to “deer hunting season in the United States.”

PETA founder, Ingrid Newkirk, told the UK’s Daily Mail that “there can be no shame or sense of decency left in the world that a few people, so out of touch with the wonder of nature, can show so much disrespect for life as to order up the slaughter of the smallest, most vulnerable and the largest, most revered of animals only to make them into a pair of shoes.”

While the famous couple, known for sporting his-and-hers fur coats to President Barack Obama’s Inauguration, has shown no remorse for their unethical fashion choices of late, we hope the public outcry will give them a dose of reality. Money can buy many things, but apparently compassion isn’t one of them.

Source: MailOnline

About Ashlee Piper

Ashlee Piper is a governmental strategist, social worker, and holistic health counselor and owner of All Is Wellness, a boutique plant-based wellness consultancy.  She is also Community Manager for the Vegucated Schoolhouse Community, where she assists hundreds of veg-curious people in transitioning to a more healthful and compassionate lifestyle.  Her writing can also be seen in Reader’s Digest, Get Vegucated, Girlie Girl Army, and via her own vegan lifestyle and recipe blog, The Little Foxes.  When she’s not writing, she enjoys volunteering with HEART and local shelters, whipping up vegan feasts, and spending time along Lake Michigan with her two rescue dogs, Banjo and Theo.

View all posts by Ashlee Piper →
  • http://www.facebook.com/Christina.Aph Christina Aphroditi

    This guy is a complete doosh-bag! Unbelievable. This is what happens when power goes into the wrong hands.

    • http://www.facebook.com/riddic.bblack Riddic Bblack

      S___ I MEAN JAY JUS GOT HIS POWER WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER PPL THAT HAD IT FOR YRSSSSSS AND STILL F____’ING UP THE WORLD JAY IS LIKE 1% OF WHAT IS F____’ED UP

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Shamma-Lammadingdong/100003467284195 Shamma Lammadingdong

        Go back to school and learn how to write and speak proper English. People will actually care what you have to say if you can at least write something legible.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Athanasia-Sky/100002182122789 Athanasia Sky

    That’s really sad :*(

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Catherine-Turley/100000290913243 Catherine Turley

    are there any two people more overrated. the fact that they’re completely self-absorbed and indulgent just solidifies my opinion.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1306647085 Victoria Bloom

    Sick F’er. I will gladly wear your skin, after I am done peeling it off of your live body!!!!

  • gandalf123

    This no brainer can’t be helped!

  • turdfergsn

    Living by the credo that if you can afford it, you can consume it. They’re just awful.

  • Lily

    These two are boils on the a*se of humanity. Jay-Z, in particular, has no talent whatsoever (though you’d never convince him of that, for his ego is gigantic). As for Beyonce, I can’t honestly say I believe she lacks talent. What she does lack however, is compassion, morals, ethics and plain common decency. She’s trash.

  • WTF

    First @Lily Jay-Z is far from talentless. Has the most No.1 albums ever, just because your insignificant ass can’t appreciate it dosen’t mean shit. My man is on his way to half a billion, while you’re here bitching about shoes!

    • http://twitter.com/elvellon03 Allyson Dwyer

      because money means everything, and measures 100 percent someones worth, right?

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Shamma-Lammadingdong/100003467284195 Shamma Lammadingdong

        In a simpleton’s mind it does. That’s what the ghetto gangsta’ mentality is all about; stupidity.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Shamma-Lammadingdong/100003467284195 Shamma Lammadingdong

      Your man? Aww. You’re in love with Jay-Z. I can guarantee “Your Man” doesn’t give two squirts of piss about you or any other low life, uneducated simpleton who can’t offer him something he doesn’t already have. Good for him for making it, but you’re delusional if you think the two of you could hang.

  • Duckets

    All this over clothing? Really? If no one had known they were made of any kind of animal, would this even be a big deal? No everyone would be all “oh those shoes are fly” instead you have people who strive off making their voices heard over the stupidest most pointless things, and for what? What do you think humans used to wear before we made clothes out of cotton and any other fabric clothes are made from? ANIMALS; so is any of this really new?

    • http://twitter.com/elvellon03 Allyson Dwyer

      Yeah because back then humans had $2,500 Nikes, and made them out of a synthesis of 10 different animals, as opposed to maybe one animal. Not to mention today we have the technology to make shoes without using 10 DIFFERENT animals. Terrible comparison

    • Anon

      Yeah but there’s a difference between a necessity and a want. These shoes could of been made from regular materials of animals that aren’t endangered. And back when humans were more simple at clothing themselves they used every part of the animal. They killed the animal for necessities not to show off the amount of money that they continue to waste while other humans, not even animals, are starving and living in filth. And that’s not just them but all of the other celebrities who act like they’re gods.
      Please educate yourself about what is really happening in the world. Although it seems like a small problem it leads into a larger one.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Nigel-G-Goodman/663811527 Nigel G Goodman

    They are a waste of clean air – can someone read a newspaper headline to them ? – its CITES in Thailand- the press is full of news about extinction of magnificent creatures at our hands.

  • Anon

    Why would somebody in their right mind be jealous of being inconsiderate and disgusting toward this planet? Have people really been that blinded by money?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Shamma-Lammadingdong/100003467284195 Shamma Lammadingdong

    Money can’t buy common sense and decency. Just another douche with money.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/LF6AO544X3RVKPY3D6VCCG5OLY Brian

    well i won’t be getting them

  • http://www.thenailthatsticksup.com/ Sam

    Man, fuck you Jay-Z.

  • deraj

    do yall really think that they killed this elephant just for these shoes?

    • Marlo Shedlock

      does it matter?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Debbie-Calvello/821311865 Debbie Calvello

    unfuckingbelievable, selfish greedy bastards, karma to them both.

  • Marlo Shedlock

    no class.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Samuel-J-Dillinger/656416116 Samuel J Dillinger

    When people have this much money they just buy shit others can’t so they can have something else to be above and beyond. Though it seems nobody has made a point to say that those shoes are fucking horrendous to look at. Using different skins makes the shoes look like it was made using scraps of cloth in the textiles bin. Proof again that people will spend money on shit when they have too much. $2,500 could feed a lot of hungry people. Shame that some of those hungry people are also the poor kids who most likely worked in a sweatshop to make these so that Mr Z could be oh, so fly.

    I appreciate the music the guy brings to the table and anything the guy backs is usually solid but it’s obvious this shit went to his head a long time ago. When he was calling himself ‘the greatest’ when I had no fucken idea who he was. But that’s the trick isn’t it? You have enough money to throw around and you keep saying you’re the greatest then all the cameras are going to point your way and all the people are going to watch the cameras. Your simple minds fail to realize that by making an issue out of these awful shoes, the guy is getting just what he wants.

  • Dino Saintange

    half of yall would probably do something pointless too if yall had that kinda income

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Shamma-Lammadingdong/100003467284195 Shamma Lammadingdong

    You’re going to change a lot of minds with that comment…

  • Marlo Shedlock

    eloquent – not.

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