Dive Brief:
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Philadelphia-based Urban Outfitters this week reported a 12% Q4 sales increase and total net sales of $1.01 billion for fiscal year 2015 ended Jan. 31. For the first time in months, the sales boost included its flagship brand Urban Outfitters as well as Anthropologie and Free People, which have been carrying the company in recent quarters, plus Bhldn and Terrain.
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But the company’s good news was marred Tuesday with an outcry over a tapestry it is selling in stores that the Anti-Defamation League called “eerily reminiscent” of garb that the Nazis required prisoners to wear.
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The Anti-Defamation League has also sent a letter of concern about Urban Outfitters’ “periodic use of products within the realm of Holocaust imagery.”
Dive Insight:
It’s getting easier and easier to buy the argument that Urban Outfitters is doing this on purpose — that is, selling offensive and controversial items to get attention. But the Anti-Defamation League says that, regardless, the retailer should stop doing it because it’s plain wrong.
“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,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL national director and a Holocaust survivor. “We urge Urban Outfitters to immediately remove the product eerily reminiscent of clothing forced upon the victims of the Holocaust from their stores and online.”
