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6 Times Urban Outfitters Was the MOST Offensive

6 Times Urban Outfitters Was the MOST Offensive

6 Times Urban Outfitters Was the MOST Offensive

When "edgy" becomes "offensive" it's not a good look.

By now you may have heard about Urban Outfitter's latest offensive fuck-up, in which they put a bloodstained Kent State sweatshirt on shelves (Kent State was the location where four anti war protestors were killed in 1970).  You've got to be kidding me...

In the wake of the uproar around everyone's favorite (hated?) hipster clothing store, I felt it was time to take a little retrospective on how massively non-politically-correct Urban Outfitters has been in recent years.  Here are the six greatest fuck-ups to date:

6.  When they decided to make an entire line of pants whose buttons and flys regularly break (and still do). 

Okay so maybe this isn't a politically incorrect douchebag attention move, but seriously Urban?!?  Yes their pants cost like $50 which theoretically should make them a better option than pricier jean counterparts a la Seven or Citizens of Humanity.  But my Citizens have been going strong for five years now and I probably went through like six pairs of BDG jeans in one year during college.  I don't know what exactly went wrong in the design/manufacturing here, but I do know that it gave me perma-fly-down-syndrome until I decided that this was not a coincidence and rejected the brand entirely.  Fuck you, BDG. 

 

 

Check out the worst offenses on the following pages... 

 

5. That time they made the "Depression" shirts

This is the first time on this list you'll see Urban poke fun at mental illness or eating disorders. Somebody at Urban actually thought, "let's make a shirt just covered in the word "Depression."' Yeah, that is a great idea.  I highly doubt that an actually depressed person would buy this.  The more likely scenario is some snarky queen B type wears it around her secretly depressed friends, making their condition seem like a fashion statement.  Cool.

 

4.  When they decided to call an actual t-shirt color "Obama black"

I feel like this one is pretty self-explanatory in its OMGNOTHEYDIDNOT-ness, but here's a photo just as a proof point.

 

 

3.  When they pissed off Sophia Bush with the "Eat Less" shirt

If the girls of America didn't have enough eating and body issues already, let's give them some more complexes about their weight by stamping it onto a shirt in a retail chain aimed primarily at young adults.  When UO released this doozy, One Tree Hill and Chicago P.D. star Sophia Bush went off on how terrible of a message this was to send to teens, as it basically promotes anorexia.  When you've managed to enrage someone as sweet as Ms. Bush you know you've done something seriously stupid. 

2. The Time Someone Thought It Was Retro Cool to Sport a Blood-Stained Kent State Sweatshirt 

The offense here really needs no explanation. 

 

1.  That Time They Made Holocaust T-Shirts

As if the Jewish community needed more shit to deal with regarding the Holocaust, Urban decided to release a line of t-shirts with a star that looked suspiciously like the Star of David in an area of the shirt suspisciously similar to the placement of the yellow stars that Jews were forced to wear during WWII.  You suck, U.O. 

 

Alright I'm done.  Off to the Nordstrom Rack to get some cute stuff for UO prices with decent quality and that won't enrage me and five of my closest friends.  

Advocate Channel - The Pride StoreOut / Advocate Magazine - Fellow Travelers & Jamie Lee Curtis

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Katie Boyden