Game Over, Reebok: Ripley's ALIEN Day Sneakers Were Only Available in Men's Sizes

Today is April 26th, otherwise known as Alien Day (Get it? 4/26? LV-426?), and along with prizes and Alamo Drafthouse double feature screenings of Alien and Aliens, the day's biggest draw for fans is that Reebok announced that they'd be selling a limited run of the Alien Stomper sneakers that Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley wears in Aliens. Pretty cool, huh? Sounds simple enough. There's no way that Reebok could screw that up, right?

Game over, man. The company reportedly only made the shoes available in men's sizes, despite the fact that, you know, they were only worn in the movie by one of the biggest female badasses in cinema history.

How could they drop the ball in such a massive way? A representative told io9 that they were released in men's sizes "due to retail demand," but that seems like a total garbage excuse. How could they know what the retail demand was going to be? They sold out extremely quickly, but there were plenty of women who were stoked to grab a pair of those iconic kicks, only to be dismayed to find that yet again, they'd been overlooked and removed from the equation altogether. (Suki-Rose Simakis at BMD is one such woman.)

Look, I absolutely understand wanting to make a very small number of something cool that only a few die-hard fans can acquire. The limited number makes it that much sweeter when a fan actually does score a pair. But making these shoes available in both men and women's sizes just seems like the most obvious decision in the world. If anything, they should have only been available in WOMEN'S sizes, since last time I checked, the character of Ellen Ripley is a woman. Way to blow it, Reebok.

Updated: io9 says that Reebok contacted them after their original article was posted and the company claims the person who told them the shoes were available "due to retail demand" wasn't authorized to speak on the company's behalf. This was their follow-up 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.

Since the shoes sold out so quickly, it's tough to find out whether or not they actually were available in those smaller sizes. I wasn't on the site when they were available, so I can't say what it looked like for certain. Let's give Reebok the benefit of the doubt, though, and chalk this up to a simple boneheaded mis-categorization instead of a much bigger blunder.