15 Urban Outfitters controversies

(Image credit: (ADL, Urban Outfitters/screenshot))

published 29 April 2016

Over the years, Urban Outfitters, a store aimed at young hipsters and owned by big-time conservative donor Richard Hayne, has managed to offend blacks, Jews, Native Americans, liberals, conservatives, and eating-disorder awareness groups, among others. Here, a look at 15 of Urban Outfitters' biggest controversies:

1. Shampoo for "suicidal hair"

Urban Outfitters decided to pull Peachy Head "Shampoo For Suicidal Hair" from its shelves in April 2016 after outraged customers took offense at the bottle seemingly making light of suicide. "I never knew my once beautiful hair would actually commit suicide by tossing itself off dramatic white cliffs to the rocks below....Before it's too late, bring your locks back from a state of complete depression with this conditioning peach shampoo," reads the back of the bottle, which is sold by the U.K. brand Anatomicals. While Urban Outfitters pulled the product, the CEO of Anatomicals defended Peachy Head shampoo, saying it has been on sale for years and "continues to be loved by many customers."

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In February 2015, the Anti-Defamation League assailed Urban Outfitters for selling a gray and white striped tapestry emblazoned with pink triangles. The design, the ADL claimed, was 'eerily reminiscent' of the clothing Nazis forced gay prisoners to wear in concentration camps. "Whether intentional or not, this gray and white stripped pattern and pink triangle combination is deeply offensive and should not be mainstreamed into popular culture," ADL National Director Abraham Foxman said in a statement.

In September 2014, Urban Outfitters was charged with exploring "the outer reaches of bad taste" after selling what seemed to be a faux blood-spattered "Vintage Kent State Sweatshirt" for $129. The sweatshirt was widely interpreted as a reference to 1970's Kent State massacre, in which four unarmed students were shot and killed by the Ohio National Guard during a Vietnam War protest. As part of Urban Outfitters' "Vintage Finds," only a single sweatshirt was available; shortly after BuzzFeed wrote about the sweatshirt, someone purchased it and listed it on eBay for $550, with a $2,500 Buy It Now price. "It was never our intention to allude to the tragic events that took place at Kent State in 1970," said Urban Outfitters in a statement, "and we are extremely saddened that this item was perceived as such."

Prescription drug abuse is the country's leading cause of accidental death, so it's not surprising that Urban Outfitters' line of shot glasses, pint glasses, and flasks resembling prescription pill bottles raised eyebrows. Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear and Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) were particularly upset — their state loses more people to prescription drugs than to traffic accidents — and joined a push to get the retailer to pull the items. In a letter to the store's CEO, Beshear called the sale of "teen-targeted items that glamorize prescription drugs...repulsive." Urban Outfitters stopped selling the products shortly thereafter.

Urban Outfitters' biggest customer pool is the 18-to-24 crowd, followed by the under-18 age group. So it should be no surprise that anti-underage-drinking advocates were incensed at a line of alcohol-related T-shirts being hawked by the retailer and modeled by apparently under-21 female models, just in time for back-to-school shopping. The T-shirt slogans — "I Vote for Vodka," "Misery Loves Alcohol," "I Drink You're Cute," "USA Drinking Team" — are especially galling because teenage drinking is a worrisome and growing problem that's associated with sexual activity and decreased condom use, said Sarah B. Weir at Yahoo Shine. "For parents already rattled about kids and booze, it's a jolt to discover these items when fall clothes shopping with one's teen or 'tween."

Upon checking on her teenage daughter's online order from Urban Outfitters' website, a New Jersey mom was horrified to discover that she had ordered a T-shirt that proudly displays the F-bomb. "I was flabbergasted that that would be the way Urban Outfitters presented themselves," said Margaret Gutierrez. She also discovered that the T-shirt's "Punk as f**k" logo and a pink marijuana-leaf motif were being sold on stickers, and requested that Urban Outfitters remove all the offending items. Although the retailer declined to comment, the items were quietly removed from the website.

Urban Outfitters put itself in the bad graces of Jewish groups in April 2012, after selling a T-shirt with a six-pointed star badge that, to some eyes, looks eerily like the Star of David patch Jews were forced to wear in Nazi Germany, leading up to and during the Holocaust. The $100 yellow T-shirt, from Danish designer Wood Wood, "represents a new low" for Urban Outfitters, said the Anti-Defamation League's Philadelphia director, Barry Morrison. The symbolism is "extremely distasteful and offensive," and the group is "outraged that your company would make this product available to your customers."

In October 2011, Sasha Houston Brown, a member of the Santee Sioux Nation, demanded that Urban Outfitters pull its "distasteful and racially demeaning" line of Navajo-labeled clothes and accessories. The Navajo Nation holds 12 trademarks on the word "Navajo," including for clothing, and a 1990 federal law prohibits falsely suggesting that products are made by Native Americans. These "blatantly racist" knockoffs clearly aren't, and they're tacky to boot, Brown said in an open letter to CEO Glen Senk. "I doubt that you consulted the Navajo Nation about using their tribal name on sophisticated items such as the 'Navajo Hipster Panty.'"

In May 2011, Chicago jewelry designer Stevie Koerner was sent a link to Urban Outfitters' website, which was selling a line of jewelry nearly identical to her 2-year-old World/United States of Love line. "My heart sank a little," she wrote on her blog. "I understand that they are a business, but it's not cool to completely rip off an independent designer's work." Twitter users glommed on to her post, making Koerner such a cause célèbre that Urban Outfitters said the next day they'd look into it... then quietly pulled the collection.

In January 2010, Jezebel editor Anna North noticed a T-shirt for sale on Urban Outfitters' website in two color combinations: "White/Charcoal" and "Obama/Black." Urban Outfitters said they "screwed up, and are sincerely sorry," explaining that they had internally developed a color called "Obama Blue" that accidentally appeared on the website. "Fine, Urban Outfitters: You're not racist, just careless," said University Chic. But given your history and penchant for making controversial political statements, "you can't blame anyone for assuming" the worst.

In late 2008, in the heat of California's vote on gay-marriage-killing Proposition 8, Urban Outfitters started selling a T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase "I Support Same-Sex Marriage" — then pulled it from shelves and the web less than a week later, with a buyer blaming "too much bad press." Shirt designer Tara Littman searched around for this "bad press"... and found exactly one negative blog entry. Since that's hardly a blip on the Urban Outfitters controversy meter, and "Hayne is a notably right-wing Republican who supports senators who vote for legislation against gay marriage," said Sharon Clott in New York, we're guessing this was a top-down decision.

The next group Urban Outfitters offended was... well, anyone who thinks it's a bad idea to sell a V-neck T-shirt with the words "Eat Less" on it, displayed on a "rail-thin brunette model in a hiked-up miniskirt," said Ryan Halliday at FOX Boston. There were enough of those people that, after a backlash, the shirt was pulled from Urban Outfitters' website in June 2010. But not its stores, said Amy Odell in New York. But hey, at least it's not as blatant as the shirt sold elsewhere displaying Kate Moss' old slogan, "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels."

A shirt with a Palestinian youth carrying an AK-47 assault rifle over the word "Victimized" riled up the Jewish community in 2008. "Of course this T-shirt is supporting terrorism," said fashion designer Leah Weiss, quoted in Haaretz. "I will never shop there again." Urban Outfitters pulled the shirt, but it already had a rocky relationship with Jews after selling a 2004 T-shirt with the words "Everybody Loves a Jewish Girl" surrounded by dollar signs and shopping bags. "If Urban Outfitters is good at something, it is getting publicity," said Ami Cohen, an American Apparel employee in Tel Aviv. "This company has a history of coming into conflict with Jews."

In August 2011, California model Hailey Clauson, then 16, sued Urban Outfitters for $28 million, saying they had used a "blatantly salacious" photo of her on a shirt without permission. Photographer Jason Lee Parry snapped the picture of Clauson in short leather shorts, legs spread and sitting on the back of a motorcycle, when she was 15, and Parry allegedly agreed not to release the photo after Clauson's modeling agency complained. The focus of the shot is "her crotch area," says the lawsuit, making it of special interest to "the likes of pedophiles."

In 2003, Urban Outfitters angered the African-American community with a Monopoly knockoff called Ghettopoly, featuring properties like "Cheap Trick Avenue" and "Smitty's XXX Peep Show," and "Hustle" bonus cards like: "You got yo whole neighborhood addicted to crack. Collect $50." Black clergy called for a boycott. "There's no way that game could be taken in any way other than that this man had racist intent in marketing it," said the Rev. Glenn Wilson in Philadelphia. That man, creator David Chang, disagreed. "It draws on stereotypes not as a means to degrade, but as a medium to bring together in laughter," Chang said. "If we can't laugh at ourselves... we'll continue to live in blame and bitterness."

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