An Adidas shopper, who goes by the twitter handle @Kid_Grusum, recently spotted a nazi flag while going through the system's "captcha" checkout process.
The image appeared during the checkout process where Adidas, using a Google service called ReCaptcha, asks the customer to point out a specific image to ensure that they're actually human and not automated bots. If you've ever shopped online before you're probably familiar with this procedure.
In this particular instance, the customer was asked to check the boxes of all images featuring "window blinds," but one of the results was a nazi flag.
According to Sole Collector, an Adidas spokesperson said that the brand is in talks with Google to make sure this particular image doesn't appear on its site again.
Adidas released the following statement, per Sole Collector.
"We sincerely apologize," a spokesperson said. "We stand for equality and inclusion and denounce any symbols that contradict those values."
This is just the latest in what has been a wild month for Adidas.
Earlier in the month, it was announced that Adidas jumped over Jordan Brand as the number two brand in U.S. sport footwear. The Adidas basketball category itself was up 40%. Great news for the brand.
However, just days ago, Jim Gatto, the Director or Global Marketing for Adidas Basketball, was charged with paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to steer top prospects to Adidas sponsored colleges. TMZ Sports obtained court documents outlining Jim Gatto's involvement which includes trying to pay one player and his family $100,000 to get him to a school of Gatto's choice, and giving another player $150,000 with the expectation that the player would sign with Adidas when he went to the NBA.
Additionally, the FBI reportedly has wiretapped phone calls of Gatto and his conspirators in the act.
Adidas maintains they were unaware of their global head of sports marketing, Jim Gatto allegedly arranged to pay high school players. The company released the following statement in the wake of the news, per ESPN's Darren Rovell,
"Today, we became aware that federal investigators arrested an Adidas employee. We are learning more about the situation. We're unaware of any misconduct and will fully cooperate with authorities to understand more."
