The purple suede shoes were made in collaboration with fashion designer Jeremy Scott and feature orange plastic leg cuffs.

The JS Roundhouse Mids, first advertised on the company's Facebook page Thursday, have garnered thousands of both positive and negative comments.

"Shoes with shakles? This is so wrong and sad. It is 2012 (sic)," Dee Buck posted on the company's Facebook page Tuesday.

Some called for a boycott of the company.
Adidas said in a statement Monday night that the design "is nothing more than the designer Jeremy Scott's outrageous and unique take on fashion and has nothing to do with slavery."

"Since the shoe debuted on our Facebook page ahead of its market release in August, Adidas has received both favourable and critical feedback."

Scott's previous designs include footwear with panda heads and Mickey Mouse.

"We apologize if people are offended by the design and we are withdrawing our plans to make them available in the marketplace."

War on Want, a UK-based charity for international workers rights, said the sneakers are exploitative.

"An odd choice of shoes when you consider that workers making Adidas clothes around the world are paid poverty wages, (and) have little or no job security...," the charity posted on Facebook.