The company added that the bright red stains and holes, which certainly seemed to suggest blood, were simply “discoloration from the original shade of the shirt and the holes are from natural wear and fray.” The statement added: “We deeply regret that this item was perceived negatively.”That's actually not an apology at all, of course.
September 15, 2014
"Urban Outfitters apologizes for its blood-red-stained Kent State sweatshirt."
"As outrage spread, Urban Outfitters issued an apology for the product on Monday morning, claiming that the product was 'was purchased as part of our sun-faded vintage collection."
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22 comments:
Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! It's hard to believe that there's not a manager at UO that saw this coming.
Yeah, save the blood-red-stained sweatshirts for the Weather Underground and Che retrospective T-shirts.
Don't even get me started on the Khmer Rouge.
Yeah, they're full of shit. They probably think their apology will work because of the staggering level of gullibility in Obama's America.
It was, as with much of what Bennetton does, just a marketing ploy designed to create 'buzz' through controversy.
And it worked!
Bad die job, eh?
These are the same "edgy" assholes who sold pens in the shape of hypodermic needles. Cool, eh?
They are pretty much scum with a concept on the edge of the end of his fifteen minutes.
"David said...
Bad die job, eh?"
Well done!
The real outrage is....$129...for that!
Plus, in our zero memory society, odds are no one involved knew the history....
A line of irreverent sweatshirts towards lefty icons ought to be welcomed.
The message is that you can't count on my assent to your plans for utopia.
The guy who runs Urban Outfitters is major pube.
tits.
Gee, you do a retro shirt that says Kent State and not wonder what people will think.
Must be the people who ok'd the panda bears with bad asian accents.
The high price and craps quality are the outrage.
No such thing as bad publicity ....
With zombie popularity, they should say the shirt stands for the notion that the "spirit of the 60s" (yea, it was 1970) still lives.
Waiving the bloody shirt is a tactic pro the anti war students. So WTF is the whining about doing that 44 years later.
It appears to be victim impersonation playing to today's internet mobs.
I would believe them if they had other college sweatshirts or t-shirts in their vintage collection but I don't see any.
This had to be done to get attention. I doubt most of the people who shop there know anything about Kent State or what happened there decades before they were born.
Good God - that was over 40 years ago. People frozen in time.
AustinRoth nailed it! Anyone outraged is being played, as if 55+ types were going to buy one of these. Without the outrage, urban outfitters ran the risk that no one of their actual market would actually "get" it. Thanks for helping them make the sale.
Yes it's offensive as all get out for all us baby boomers who remember it. I get that. But I am so tired of outrage theatre. Can't we just save it for the outrages that actually hurt other people economically or physically? Real pain, not just psychic pain.
I agree with Iowahawk who said "I'll tell you this much: if I'm gonna pay $129 for a sweatshirt, that damn well better be real hippie blood on it"
Well put maestro!
"I'm sorry you feel that way."
So, how many of those who buy the shirt have ever heard the phrase "Wave the bloody shirt" and know how this phrase relates to U.S. history?
To show my solidarity I will continue to boycott sweatshirts that cost more than $3.
UO "vintage" is not products they mass produce - it's, well, vintage or single-production pseudo-vintage.
I remember a year or two ago a Metal site mocking a UO "vintage" leather jacket with a painted back.
"What manager approved that?" - none. Because this isn't a corporate act at that level.
(UO is also claiming that the shirt was simply a red one that was bleached by whoever vintage-ized it, and that nobody even thought of The Kent State Unpleasantness.
Which sounds totally implausible to old hippies, but remember that nobody under 30 who isn't a Deep Leftist gives a damn or even remembers that.
So I find it absolutely plausible.)
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