Adidas has reportedly launched an investigation after accusations surfaced claiming Russian streetwear designer Gosha Rubchinskiy asked a 16-year old boy to send him nude photos thru social media.
The teen, Jan Silfverling, posted conversations he had with Rubchinskiy over Instagram and the WhatsApp messenger app, which can be seen in the post embedded below.
According to reports, another victim also came forward shortly thereafter saying that Rubchinskiy also requested photos from him as well. Rubchinskiy has denied the accusations and claims that a conversation about casting Silfverling in a runway show was manipulated to make the designer’s requests look malicious.
GQ reports a rep for Rubchinskiy defended the designer by saying that he frequently asks minors for pictures of themselves, sometimes shirtless in their underwear:
“Gosha has been doing casting by Instagram for many years now,” the representative told GQ in an e-mail. “It is a normal practice nowadays. We always ask to [sic] face photos, in full length and topless. Sometimes photos in underwear are required in order to understand the volume of hips.” When I asked if this instance would affect how Rubchinskiy casts models moving forward, the representative said, “We are certainly going to be reviewing how we cast shows in the future to minimise the danger of this sort of thing happening.”
Rubchinskiy has collaborated with Adidas on several projects over the years. According to Sole Collector, an Adidas spokesperson said the brand takes "any allegation of this nature extremely seriously" and that it is "currently looking into the claim that has been made."