Atheist Shoe Company Targets Babies With New 'I Believe in Mummy, I Believe in Daddy' Shoe Line
An atheist shoe company from Germany has targeted a new audience by promoting a line of atheist-themed shoes for babies and toddlers. The company, known simply as ATHEIST, made national headlines earlier this year when it accused the U.S. Postal Service of discriminating against its company for being godless.
The company, based in Berlin, created a Kickstarter page to raise money for its new line of atheist-themed baby shoes, hoping to raise £7,000, or roughly $9,636, so it can incorporate the new line into its business model. The company has already raised over half the amount needed to reach its goal.
The Kickstarter page for the baby shoes offers a brief description as to why the small company chose to make a shoe line for infants in the first place: "We're pretty sure all babies are born atheists and, rather than commit them to some religion before they're old enough to have a say [let alone control their pooping functions] we'd rather celebrate their undoubted belief in Mummy, Daddy and breasts."
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The baby shoes, which are suitable for infants age zero to 24 months old, will carry a similar design to the company's adult shoe line, with homages to the atheist lifestyle printed on the sole of each shoe. While the adult shoes have messages such as "Ich Bin Atheist" and "Darwin Loves Sole," the baby ones will have messages that read "I believe in mummy," "I believe in daddy" and "I believe in booby."
David, the founder of ATHEIST shoes, says in the video accompanying the Kickstarter campaign that the fundraising platform helped him start the company last year, and therefore it was only natural to turn to Kickstarter again to help raise money for the new baby shoe line. The shoes are made with soft leather and lined with fur on the inside. The company says in its Kickstarter video that it will also make same-sex couple-friendly messages for the baby shoes, and make a select version of the shoe that is vegan friendly.
The ATHEIST shoe company gained national headlines earlier this year when it accused the U.S. Postal Service of discriminating against its company because it used "atheist" themed packaging tape on its parcels. The company claimed to have conducted an experiment in November 2012 in which it sent 178 packages to 89 people in 49 U.S. states on the same day. Two packages, one with atheist tape and one without, were sent to each recipient.
The company claimed that after conducting the experiment, it found on average, atheist-branded packages took three times longer to reach their destination and were 10 times more likely to disappear than packages branded with regular, blank tape. Although the company claimed it would address the issue with the postal service, no news of the government agency's response has been posted.
