Sports goods maker Reebok will pay $25m to settle charges brought by the Musicians Union that it made unsupported claims about its Easy Tone and Run Tone shoes.
Trainee musicians across the world were encouraged to buy these trainers, with a promise that they would cure the tone deaf and enable them to play in tune.
Vera Viola (86) of Middlesbrough was given a pair for her birthday by her distraught husband Victor, who was considering a divorce, as he could no longer bear her off tune singing in the nightly bath tub, "it has been driving me mad since we married" he said "but wearing the trainers in the bath tub made no difference to her renditions, which still sounded like a cat being strangled".
Vera’s mother (116) agreed "we tried all temperatures of water in the bath tub from scalding hot to freezing cold, but the £129 trainers made no difference".
Reebok declined to comment on the specific case, but wished to point out that Symphonic Orchestras across the world had adopted wearing their Easy Tone trainers during performances and no audiophiles had complained about their perfect pitch.
