Why Adidas’s Shalev Biton Ad Triggered Boycott Calls

Adidas’s campaign for its Single Shoe service became a political flashpoint after local advertising in Israel featured Shalev Biton, a former Israeli soldier who lost his left leg after being wounded in 2021. Biton appeared alongside 10 other disabled athletes in posters promoting a service that lets customers who need one shoe buy it for half the price of a pair. 13

The campaign prompted online criticism and boycott calls from pro-Palestinian activists, and Spanish actor Javier Bardem was among the public figures urging a boycott. Adidas subsequently apologized, describing the material as a local activation rather than a global campaign. 26

What the campaign was promoting

Single Shoe is an accessibility-focused retail service for customers with amputations or other limb differences who do not need a conventional pair of shoes. Adidas says it launched the service in 23 European countries in January 2026, with individual shoes priced at 50% of a pair at Adidas-owned stores and outlets. The company said the initiative was developed in consultation with disability organizations, including ParalympicsGB. 17

In Israel, Biton was one of 11 disabled athletes used to promote the service in local Adidas stores. Reporting also described a promotional video in which he tried on an Adidas shoe and ran outdoors. 322

Why the ad provoked criticism

The central objection was not to selling individual shoes for amputees. Critics objected to the selection of a former Israeli soldier as a prominent face of the Israeli promotion during a period of extraordinary rehabilitation needs in Gaza.

WHO’s May 2026 update estimated that about 43,000 people in Gaza had sustained life-changing injuries since October 2023, including more than 22,000 major limb injuries and more than 5,000 limb amputations. It estimated that up to one-quarter of those with life-changing injuries were children. These are estimates assembled from multiple health and rehabilitation data sources, not a complete real-time registry. 4145

Against that backdrop, critics characterized the ad as insensitive and as lending a commercial platform to an Israeli military veteran while many Palestinians faced severe limb trauma and limited access to rehabilitation. A boycott-campaign coordinator quoted by Al Jazeera called the advertisement “an affront to Palestinians.” 22

Bardem added visibility to the response by telling followers to boycott Adidas in solidarity with Palestinians. 613

Adidas’s apology and defense

Adidas said it recognized that an image used in a “recent local activation” had caused “concerns and strong reactions.” The company said it had not intended to cause offense and apologized to people affected. 212

It also stressed two points:

• The posters were used in Israel and were not part of a global campaign. 13
• Single Shoe is an inclusion service for people with limb differences, not a program designed specifically for soldiers or for Israel. 1718

Adidas said the service was continuing to expand across Europe, Asia and the Middle East, including Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. 1723

How this fits Adidas’s broader Israel-Palestine controversies

The Biton campaign landed in a context where Adidas’s marketing and sponsorship choices have repeatedly drawn scrutiny from both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel audiences.

In 2024, the company removed Palestinian-American model Bella Hadid from a campaign for a shoe associated with the 1972 Munich Olympics, a decision that itself prompted criticism and calls for Adidas to apologize. 27

Earlier, Palestinian sports clubs and boycott campaigners had challenged Adidas’s sponsorship of the Israel Football Association over the participation of settlement-based clubs. Adidas’s sponsorship later ended in 2018; the company said at the time that the decision was commercial rather than political. 3126

Those earlier disputes do not establish that Single Shoe was created to exclude Palestinians. Rather, they show why a seemingly straightforward accessibility campaign could be interpreted through a much wider and highly contested political lens.

The broader lesson for brand campaigns

The controversy illustrates how the identity of a campaign participant can become inseparable from a conflict’s humanitarian context. Adidas presented Single Shoe as a practical inclusion measure. Critics focused on whom the Israeli campaign elevated, and on the contrast with Gaza’s immense unmet need for prosthetics, rehabilitation and long-term disability support.

For consumers, the key distinction is between the service itself—a discounted one-shoe option for people who need it—and the local creative decision to feature Biton. Adidas’s apology addressed the offense caused by that local activation while maintaining that the broader program is intended to serve people with limb differences across multiple countries. 217