HONG KONG, June 27 (WNM) - Nike has been forced to stop the sale of a line of limited-edition sports shoes in China after clients in China started a massive protest on Instagram against one of the company’s designers. Chinese retailers boycotted sales of the trainers designed by Undercover, the studio of Japanese designer Jun Takahashi, after Undercover posted a picture of protesters with the slogan “no extradition to China”, thus supporting the protests agaisnt Hong Kong’s proposed extradition bill on Instagram this month.

The post provoked a massive protest from Chinese Instagram users, who accessed Instagram via VPN as the network is blocked in China. Undercover deleted the post saying it was an “individual opinion” posted by mistake.

The blog FashionUnited writes: "China is a key market for Nike, and its Daybreaker sneaker collaboration with Undercover that debuted on June 21st was already a hot item for local sneaker aficionados. Nike cannot afford to offend China, where consumer demand for its products is booming, and which last year saw the company post revenue of 1.38 billion dollars for the Greater China region, of which 70 percent came from footwear sales."

In a statement to Footwear News, Nike said: “Based on feedback from Chinese consumers, we have withdrawn from China a small number of products that were designed by a collaborator.”

A spokesperson for Nike said to the FT: “Based on feedback from Chinese consumers, we have withdrawn from China a small number of products that were designed by a collaborator.”

According to the FT, the "controversy is unlikely to have a significant impact on Nike’s revenues in China, as it was swiftly dealt with and the shoes were designed as a collector’s item rather than a mass-market product, said a person close to the company."