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‘Aliens’ fans are livid about Reebok’s botched Alien Day shoe sale

Reebok failed to make Ripley's shoes available women's sizes.

Photo of Michelle Jaworski 

Michelle Jaworski

Internet Culture

Posted on Apr 27, 2016   Updated on May 26, 2021, 9:26 pm CDT

Fans were thrilled when Reebok announced last month that it would celebrate the newly created Alien Day by selling the iconic “Alien Stomper” boots that Sigourney Weaver wore in Aliens—even though most saw through the made-up holiday as a blatant ploy to sell merchandise. But as is the case with many nostalgia-driven sales, like Pepsi Perfect last October, things didn’t go as planned.

The shoes were set to go on sale April 26 at 12pm ET, costing fans a cool $174.99 with the option to purchase Ripley’s high-top shoes or the mid-cut version Bishop wore in the movie. However, the numbers were limited: only 426 pairs of Ripley’s shoes (referring to LV-426, the planet in Alien) and 1,986 pairs of Bishop’s shoes (the year Aliens was released) would be available. If you’re in the U.S., that number went down significantly.

https://twitter.com/ReebokClassics/status/724643803353763840

Even if you didn’t know just how few pairs of shoes would be up for grabs, it was probably fair to assume Reebok’s website wouldn’t hold up to the traffic once the gates opened—despite Reebok having nearly a month to prepare for legions of collectors and fans.

https://twitter.com/labcreature/status/724997035628322817

https://twitter.com/thenamescliff/status/724995516551962624

But fans soon noticed an entirely different problem. When they clicked on the link to purchase Ripley’s Alien Stompers, they discovered the shoes—ones that a female character wore in a blockbuster so successful that there’s a fake holiday around it—were only available in men’s sizes.

Generally speaking, you can convert to a women’s shoe size by stepping down a men’s shoe size by two, although that’s not always a guaranteed fit. According to screenshots of the Ripley’s Alien Stompers product page, the smallest available size was a men’s 8, which would be approximately a women’s 10. That already leaves out many of the women who may have wanted to purchase and wear those shoes.

https://twitter.com/PhysicistLisa/status/725015923552309248

Many fans didn’t miss the irony that shoes originally worn by an iconic female hero weren’t made available to women.

https://twitter.com/samusclone/status/724996891562377216

https://twitter.com/rthompson1138/status/724995895188561920

https://twitter.com/Burning_Luke/status/724997464256839681

The Daily Dot reached out to Reebok for comment, but did not get a response. A Reebok representative told i09 that “The Alien Stompers were released in men’s sizes due to retail demand.”

The Alien Stompers are, unsurprisingly, already sold out, but you can still bid on a pair being given away for charity. 

Update 10:06pm CT, April 26: Reebok provided i09 with an updated statement, claiming the representative who originally spoke to the site wasn’t authorized to do so. According to the statement, “The Alien Stomper was mis-categorized on our US website as a men’s shoe. While size availability varied by market, the Alien Stomper is a unisex style and was produced in sizes (US Men’s) 3.5 – 12, which is a typical size range for a unisex model.”

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*First Published: Apr 27, 2016, 12:13 am CDT

Michelle Jaworski

Michelle Jaworski is a staff writer and TV/film critic at the Daily Dot. She covers entertainment, geek culture, and pop culture and has covered everything from the Sundance Film Festival, NYFF, and Tribeca to New York Comic Con and Con of Thrones. She is based in Brooklyn.

Michelle Jaworski