ANIMAL rights groups were fuming last night after Nike unveiled A£1,400 trainers made from CROCODILE skin.The sports shoes a€" with 18-carat gold lace tags a€" went on display at the companya€™s flagship store in Londona€™s Oxford Circus at the weekend.

The trainers were made to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Nikea€™s iconic Air Force 1 line.

Shoes are also being made from the skin of the worlda€™s largest snake a€" the anaconda.

Stores around the world are exhibiting the croc shoe in a glass case while stocking only one pair in each size.

But Nick Rudge, of the National Animal Welfare Society, said last night: a€oeWhat a horrific and objectionable way of making money a€" they are croccy horrors.

a€oeIt is fashion gone mad and no different to wearing fur.a€A

Clifford Warwick, a reptile biologist with the Animal Protection Agency, said: a€oeWild crocodiles are hacked up alive for their skins, while farmed animals are treated equally barbarically.

a€oeIf people knew, it would put a lot of them off buying these shoes.

a€oeIt is distasteful consumer excess.

a€oeNike has crossed the line.a€A

Poorva Joshipura, of ethical animal treatment group Peta, said: a€oeAnyone buying them is supporting cruelty.a€A

Andrew Tyler, director of campaign group Animal Aid, dismissed the shoes as a€oethe height of decadencea€A.

No one from Nike was available to comment last night.

thesun