Kent State University Vintage Sweatshirt with splotches that look like blood spark outrage

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Mon Sep 15, 2014, 02:23 PM - Edit history (3)

Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer

By Karen Farkas, The Plain Dealer
on September 15, 2014 at 8:12 AM, updated September 15, 2014 at 11:12 AM

KENT, Ohio - Urban Outfitters is facing a public backlash after offering for sale a "Vintage Kent State Sweatshirt" with red blotches that could be interpreted as blood stains.

Twitter lit up as people blasted the company for its insensitivity for selling an item citing a university nationally known as the site of the May 4, 1970 deaths of four students by the Ohio National Guard during Vietnam War protests.

"We take great offense to a company using our pain for their publicity and profit" the university said in a statement Monday. "This item is beyond poor taste and trivializes a loss of life that still hurts the Kent State community today."

Buzzfeed first posted a story, and it was picked up by national news sites, including the Today Show. ... The description of the $129 sweatshirt read: "Washed soft and perfectly broken in, this vintage Kent State sweatshirt is cut in a loose, slouchy fit. Excellent vintage condition. We only have one, so get it or regret it.!"


Read more: http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2014/09/kent_state_university_vintage.html

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Urban Outfitters Features "Vintage" Red-Stained Kent State Sweatshirt

Kent State Statement Regarding Urban Outfitters’ Sweatshirt

May 4, 1970, was a watershed moment for the country and especially the Kent State family. We lost four students that day while nine others were wounded and countless others were changed forever.

We take great offense to a company using our pain for their publicity and profit. This item is beyond poor taste and trivializes a loss of life that still hurts the Kent State community today.

We invite the leaders of this company as well as anyone who invested in this item to tour our May 4 Visitors Center, which opened two years ago, to gain perspective on what happened 44 years ago and apply its meaning to the future.

# # #

Media Contacts:
Eric Mansfield, [e-mail], 330-672-2797
Emily Vincent, [e-mail], 330-672-8595

Expect Google to select a whole bunch of Urban Outfitters ads to display.

ETA: upon further reflection, I don't see that Urban Outfitters is selling the sweatshirt, which looks as if it came from a yard sale, with any claim that the splotches resemble blood. It is entirely possible that the staff at UO is clueless regarding the significance of Kent State and that the fading of the dye occurred at random. Seeing blood and bullet holes on this is like seeing the Virgin Mary on a piece of toast.

[kath]

1. How horrible.

Shaking head in disgust...

[951-Riverside]

2. The cold blooded slaughter of those kids by the government is more offensive.

The fact that the murderers were never charged and one actually become a fire chief is 100 times more offensive than this shirt ever will be.

[whathehell]

29. Of course it was, but they aren't in competition. n/t

[zonkers]

3. Poss. learning moment? Maybe UO should come out with

a shirt that honors the event in the right way. In any case, I am still glad the memory of Kent State in on the forefront of our collective consciousness at the moment, no matter how it got there.

[KamaAina]

4. Today's Worst. People. In The World!

[democrank]

5. Talk about callous indifference....

I remember the Kent State killings. Anyone who would make light of that awful tragedy is disgustingly heartless.

[Ash_F]

6. On the bright side, this controversy will inform a lot of new people about Kent State. /nt

[zwyziec]

7. A TERRIFIC IDEA!!

As background, I lived four miles from Kent State on that day in 1970, when those inexperienced National Guardsmen with M-16 rifles, fired on those unarmed students, after being ordered out by a Republican Governor, James Rhodes.

It was a massacre.

One of the direct consequences was the next day, four million grade school, high school and college students, across the USA went on strike for the week and is event changed the momemtun of the Viet Nam war.

All you first amendment rights proponents must admit that this sweatshirt is a remarkable reminder of a sad day and a senseless act by a terrified GOP governor.

I would buy one right now if they were available and wear it with pride.

I wish they were available when I was marching in parades, standing on street corners and doing everything I could to end that senseless war!

The homicides at Kent State must be remembered as must the power of students against a tyrannical governement.

[SoapBox]

8. Thank you.

I think there are now several generations that simply don't understand what happened.

Maybe all the outrage should be redirected to...Never, Ever Forget.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

10. Upon reflection, I think that is what has happened here.

Does UO come right out and say that the splotches look like blood? Someone found this at a yard sale for cheap and is now flipping it for a huge markup. The staff at UO probably has no concept of what Kent State means to people of a certain age.

I edited my comments to note this.

[SoapBox]

11. Looking at the OP update...

Was this really for sale directly from UO?

Looking at the link that has the picture, it says 1 only and that "Vintage Finds" looks for 1 of a kind items from "all over the map."

The article is full of outrage but is confusing...maybe an old KS sweatshirt that was simply trashed over the years?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

13. I'm coming around to that viewpoint. NT

[michreject]

14. Kent State's colors are blue and gold

Known as the Kent State Golden Flashes.

[Roy Rolling]

9. on balance

this exploits the tragedy and enriches Urban Outfitters more than educates on the "power of students against a tyrannical government".

Of course people have the right to say what they want, but this is like wearing a hat with a bullet hole in it to protest the murder of JFK.

[geardaddy]

12. Urban Outfitters is a known Repuglican donor. n/t

[hughee99]

21. Yes but to cater to their hipsters clients, they only do it "ironically". n/t

[geardaddy]

22. Ha!

Good one.

[Feral Child]

26. Off topic.

Love your sigline.

[geardaddy]

27. Thanks!

[blkmusclmachine]

15. Hopefully will open people's eyes to a tragedy some would like best left forgotten.

[Enrique]

16. $129 for a sweatshirt

there's the outrage.

[Retrograde]

17. Ooooo, but it's edgy!

And there's only one? Really? It wasn't made in China last week?

BTW, bloodstains do not stay bright red: they fade to a reddish brown color after a few days.

[rocktivity]

18. They're playing the Abecrombie and Fitch game

Remember how they'd sell something so blatantly controversial, the resulting media outrage saved them the cost of a back-to-school/year-end holiday advertising budget?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1901738

And what if passersby -- or heaven forbid, police officers -- were to think that the blood was real?


rocktivity

[rocktivity]

19. UPDATE: Urban Outfitters Apologizes

For Its Blood-Red-Stained Kent State Sweatshirt

Washington Post: “Get it or regret it!” read the description for a “vintage,” one-of-a-kind Kent State sweatshirt that Urban Outfitters briefly offered for just $129. However, the fact that there was just one available for purchase is far from the most regrettable part of the item: the shirt was decorated with a blood spatter-like pattern, reminiscent of the 1970 “Kent State Massacre” that left four people dead.

...Here’s what the listing looked like before:



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.” 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.”

Well, that explains it, then -- they were just trying to sell a stained, discolored, frayed sweatshirt for $129 -- talk about regrettable! But the point is, see how much more sense things make when you calm down and wait until you have all the facts instead of leaping to wild conclusions?


rocktivity

P.S:

A listing for the shirt, with a starting bid of $550, popped up on eBay shortly afterward. User “kentstatesweater” posted a screenshot of appears to be his or her online receipt for the purchase of the sweatshirt.

[Rhinodawg]

20. Yep...thats pretty disgusting...

on every level.

[YOHABLO]

23. I don't believe they "sold out" of the sweatshirts .. that's bull.

Four dead in O H I O .. I won't forget! Truth to Power my friends.

[raging moderate]

24. Also, remember the similar killings at Jackson State.

Another student protest that was violently suppressed at about the same time.
I think I read that one of the young people killed was actually a young man on his way home from work. The father of a tiny baby.

[Feral Child]

25. In very poor taste.

I lean toward dark humor and cynicism at times, but this is reprehensible.

[Adam051188]

28. i don't believe that ever really happened.

jesus would've stopped them.

[secondwind]

30. too little... too late... it's in bad taste now

[CherokeeDem]

31. What???

"Seeing blood and bullet holes on this is like seeing the Virgin Mary on a piece of toast."

I was a freshman at the University of Kentucky when the incident at Kent State occurred. We were already in the midst of protest rallies and being tear gassed on my campus. The night the KSU students were killed, my campus erupted, buildings burned by Molotov cocktails, evacuated from our dorms, the Lexington police in riot gear, followed up by the National Guard. Let the National Guard march down the street at your university after four students were killed. The 'stains' and 'holes' on the 'vintage' sweatshirt... sure look more realistic than the Virgin Mary on a piece of toast as you claim.

Mistake or not by Urban Outfitters and while that is entirely possible, I'm not buying it. Why would they put an item like this on their site if they didn't know? That wouldn't make much sense would it.

This was a tragic situation and this stunt by Urban Outfitters is horrific. Just like a Republican... do the deed then apologize because they didn't mean to do it.

Yeah... right.

[Dont call me Shirley]

32. Just sent an email to UO. Disgusting and sick!

[smirkymonkey]

33. I can't imagine what the f**k was going through the heads of those in sales & marketing

at UO to think that this was a good idea. I mean, this had to have been approved by a number of levels. Seriously, wth is wrong with people?

[IkeRepublican]

35. Stupidity

Has a habit of getting it's way.


Source: The Day After, George Petrie

[KinMd]

34. NBC Nightly News just reported that Urban Outfitters took the shirt down

[King_Klonopin]

37. Is the NRA connected to this in any way? nt

[Rhinodawg]

38. In remembrance

Allison Krause
Jeffrey Miller
Sandra Scheuer
William Knox Schroeder




their lives were tragically cut short by murder.
we will never forget.

[RobinA]

39. Interesting

I was getting ready to go to college when this happened and it did have an effect on me. When I heard about this sweatshirt I took it in a completely different light than seems to be the mainstream reaction.

My reaction was that it is a rather stark remembrance of this awful episode. Whether intentional or not (as they claim) Never forget! Polished granite memorials are one thing, but they are sanitized and for ritualized mourning. This is a pretty graphic reminder of the results of excessive law enforcement power, something we can't be reminded of too often in the current environment.