In Wake of Adidas Announcement, Japan-Based ASICS Drops Kangaroo Skins

Momentum building for a global retreat from the trade in kangaroo skins

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, May 20, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Just days after adidas announced it has ended its sourcing of kangaroo skins for its soccer cleats, the global athletic shoe giant ASICS has followed suit. The Japan-based company delivered that news to Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy in an email today.

“We would like to share with you that, as we have successfully developed high-performance alternatives to kangaroo leather, we are moving toward ending the production of products using kangaroo leather by the end of 2025,” wrote a staffer with the ASICS sustainability department. “We place great importance on ethical sourcing, while continually striving to enhance the functionality and quality of our products,” the spokesperson added.

Wayne Pacelle, the president of the Center for a Humane Economy, received a similar pledge from the CEO of adidas at the company’s annual general meeting in Fürth last Thursday. Nike, Puma, New Balance, Diadora, and U.K.-based Sokito made prior announcements about divorcing their companies from the kangaroo skin trade.

“With the rapid-fire announcements from ASICS and adidas, we’re witnessing the dismantling of a supply chain built on bloodshed and the orphaning of kangaroo joeys,” said Pacelle. “The foreign markets for kangaroo skins are collapsing, and that can only mean good news for the iconic marsupials of Australia.”

“ASICS has acknowledged a fundamental truth: the commercial slaughter of wild kangaroos for their skins is neither ethical nor morally defensible,” said Jennifer Skiff, director of international programs at the Center for a Humane Economy and lead of the organization’s Kangaroos Are Not Shoes campaign. “ASICS’s innovative materials outperform kangaroo leather, removing any justification for continuing this inhumane trade.”

Every year, up to 2 million kangaroos are shot in Australia under the cover of darkness, leaving countless joeys orphaned and often killed by blunt force. Since launching the Kangaroos Are Not Shoes campaign in 2020, the Center has led investigations, litigation, protests, and global coalition-building to expose the brutal realities of the kangaroo skin trade. Thanks in part to these efforts, the annual kill has already dropped from 2 million to 1.3 million—and is expected to decline further as more companies adopt humane policies.

With ASICS stepping away from kangaroo leather, the Center for a Humane Economy and Animal Wellness Action are ramping up efforts to persuade Mizuno—the last major athletic shoe brand still using kangaroo leather—to make the same commitment.

“ASICS is setting an ethical standard other Japanese companies should follow. I hope Mizuno will be next,” said Victoria Garafola, the Center’s representative in Japan.

Complementing its work with corporations, Animal Wellness Action is also spearheading support for the Kangaroo Protection Act — a bill in the U.S. Congress to ban the import and sale of products made from kangaroo parts. Through grassroots activism, congressional outreach, and public education, the organization is leading the charge to end U.S. participation in the largest terrestrial wildlife slaughter on Earth.

Learn more and take action at KangaroosAreNotShoes.org.

Wayne Pacelle
Animal Wellness Action
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