The number 4 in the type used on Adidas's new kit design for the German soccer team looks like an old-fashioned S-rune and has caused a stir in a country where Nazi symbolism is illegal. It now blocks attempts to customize a kit with two 4s, which resemble the ᛋᛋ flag used by the SS, and is redesigning the 4 glyph to avoid future unpleasantness.
An Adidas spokesperson was compelled to deny that the resemblance was intentional.
"We as a company are committed to opposing xenophobia, anti-Semitism, violence and hatred in every form," he said.
Adidas separately told the BBC that the German Football Association (DFB) and its partners had designed the numbers on the shirts.
In a post on Twitter/X, the DFB said the shirt designs had been submitted to UEFA for review during the design process and that "none of the parties involved saw any proximity to Nazi symbolism".
It doesn't matter if you think this is a fuss about nothing or genuinely troublesome: either way, there was no-one left who could see that this design sucked, why it sucked, and was in a position to fix it before it became the easily-predicted problem that it now is. Adidas recently resumed sales of Kanye West's shoes after his antisemitic outbursts and praise for Hitler. So the company is beginning to smell funny.
