Nike has decided to postpone the release of its Air Max 1 x Cactus Jack collaboration with Travis Scott in the wake of the Astroworld Festival tragedy.
The company released a statement on Monday (November 15) explaining why it would be insensitive to unleash the shoes now: “Out of respect for everyone impacted by the tragic events at the Astroworld Festival, we are postponing the launch of the Air Max 1 x Cactus Jack.”
The release was supposed to drop via Nike’s SNRKS app on December 16, which would have been nearly six weeks out from the deadly incident.
Eight people were killed and over 300 injured on November 5 as the crowd of approximately 50,000 people rushed the stage to see Travis Scott perform — and the death toll has only continued to rise. Not long after 22-year-old Texas A&M senior Bhari Shahani was declared brain dead from injuries sustained during the crowd surge, Shahani’s family was forced to take her off life support on November 9.
Meanwhile, 9-year-old Ezra Blount, who suffered from brain trauma after he was trampled during the chaos, died over the weekend, taking the death toll to 10. He’d been placed in a medically induced coma with injuries to several of his vital organs but never regained consciousness.
Houston Rockets Postpone 'Travis Scott Day' As Cactus Jack Dior Collaboration Hangs In The Balance
Scott, Live Nation and Drake (who was a special guest that evening) are facing multiple lawsuits. On November 12, attorneys Ben Crump, Alex Hilliard and John Duffy held a press conference at Houston’s Harris County Civil Courthouse to announce they’re representing over 200 alleged victims who say they suffered both physically and mentally as a result of the Astroworld tragedy. They’ve filed 110 lawsuits and are planning on filing 90 more.
“We will make sure that they get justice because this should have never happened,” Crump said. “It is also about making sure Live Nation and anybody else who had anything to do with the failure here that caused people to lose their children. Nobody should ever die from going to a concert. In the future, safety must be paramount.”
Harris County released the names of the other eight victims on November 8: Mirza Baig, 27, Rodolfo Peña, 23, Madison Dubiski, 23, Franco Patiño, 21, Jacob Jurinke, 20, John Hilgert, 14, Axel Acosta Avila, 21, and Brianna Rodriguez, 16.
Time to cancel Nike and start wearing Adidas. Hopefully Adidas will give Travis a deal and release some shoes and merch. Fuck cancel culture.
This has nothing to do with cancel culture. They’re just doing it out of respect for the victims. It would be highly insensitive to release a Travis Scott shoe six weeks after 10 people died at his show. Common sense.
Wrong. This has nothing to do with respect. They’re just doing it so people won’t get mad, Nike is first to cancel someone just to please the crowd, (and milk more money). They can keep these AM1 anyway. Shoes dope but way too limited for a regular person to buy. Fuck Nike, Adidas, New Balance etc. ftw
People died from getting stomped on, so yeah good move.
Oh no poor Travis Scott the most overrated weirdo rapper won’t be making his millions off sheep like you who buy his wack shoes and McDonald’s food, everyone’s heart bleeds for this clown
if it was you Travis Scott would post a laughing emoji and be on his way to whatever function – he would not care what happened to yr ‘bag” -just sayin