It is head scratching when retail brands release outrageously offensive clothing items. Yet, despite the headlines and social-media attention garnered of late, these gaffes occur more than you might realize.
Time and time again such major brands as Urban Outfitters Inc., Abercrombie & Fitch Co., American Apparel and Zara — and even less edgy brands, like Gap Inc. — release items that are widely deemed offensive.
It’s been happening for years, with the latest example occurring this past Monday, when Urban Outfitters began selling a vintage Kent State University shirt that appeared splattered in blood.
The shirt, of course, recalled memories of the May 4, 1970, tragedy on the Ohio campus, where the National Guard killed four students protesting the Vietnam War, blasting off 67 rounds in just over 10 seconds.
Kent State said it took “great offense” to the company’s attempt to use its pain for publicity and profit. “This item is beyond poor taste,” the university said.
Urban Outfitters pulled the shirt from its website immediately after an uproar surfaced on social-media sites including Twitter. It apologized for the offense, saying it was never the company’s intent to allude to the tragedy. “We are extremely saddened that this item was perceived as such,” it said.
And yet history suggests the lesson might not have been learned — here are just a few of the worst from the last three years.
Urban Outfitters
The battered faux-vintage shirt emblazoned with the Kent State logo is off-red with splatters of crimson and holes in its fabric. Shortly after its release this week, consumers took to Twitter and other social-media sites, calling the offering distasteful and offensive.
The retailer said it never intended to allude to the Kent State massacre and that the item was meant to be part of its sun-faded vintage collection.
“There is no blood on this shirt, nor has this item been altered in any way,” the company assured. “The red stains are discoloration from the original shade of the shirt and the holes are from natural wear and fray.”
However, Kent State University said it was appalled, calling the item in poor taste and urging Urban Outfitters’ leadership to visit the campus’s memorial to “gain perspective” on the tragic event.
Urban immediately removed the item, but at least one was listed on eBay for repurchase at a sharp premium before also being removed.
Zara
Zara apologized for the release of this shirt last month, saying it was supposed to recall the Old West and not the Nazi era.
The shirt met with a firestorm when it hit Zara’s website in August as looking uncomfortably similar to concentration-camp uniforms.
Zara said the gold star was not supposed to represent the Star of David, but, rather, the stars sheriffs wore in the United States’ frontier times.
Adidas
The sneakers, called JS Roundhouse Mids, were introduced on the company’s official Facebook page. However, the company’s post drew immense criticism and was eventually deleted. Adidas went on to pull the plus on the line two months before it was expected to hit store shelves.
Adidas at first defended the sneaker’s designer, calling him quirky and saying the shoe was his “outrageous and unique” take on fashion, not related to anything having to do with slavery.
JC Penney
The shirt reads: “I’m too pretty to do homework so my brother has to do it for me.” It ran under the alarmingly sexist product description: “Who has time for homework when there’s a new Justin Bieber album out? She’ll love this tee that’s just as cute and sassy as she is.”
Penney yanked the shirt, which was targeting girls ages 7 to 16, and sided with its angry customers, saying the shirt, on reflection, did not “deliver an appropriate message.”
Gap
Native American activist Renee Roman Nose told Indian Country Today in 2012 that the slogan “Manifest Destiny” has been employed to justify a policy that led to the murder of millions of indigenous people throughout the country.
She staged a massive Facebook protest to boycott Gap’s bricks-and-mortar stores, coupled with a Change.org petition that claimed the T-shirt effectively promoted mass genocide and normalized oppression.
Gap eventually pulled the shirt from store shelves and said in a terse statement, lacking emotion or apology, that, based on customer feedback, it would no longer offer the shirt online or in stores.