Urban Outfitters offends with red-stained ‘vintage’ Kent State sweatshirt

Is the clothier continually applying a tin ear to its marketing decisions? Or is its appalling tastelessness deliberate—just to make a buck—and deserving of a coverage blockout?

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Urban Outfitters seems bent on marketing via bad taste.

Not having been content with previous clothing references to Nazi concentration camps and the stigma of depression, it was called out over the weekend for selling a “vintage” Kent State sweatshirt that evoked the 1970 campus shootings.

The description of the apparently blood-spattered shirt included this message: “We only have one, so get it or regret it!”

Soon after Buzzfeed pointed out the $129 shirt and its offensiveness, the item was sold out on Urban Outfitter’s website. It then made an appearance on eBay before the listing was taken down.

Many took to Twitter to voice their opinions:

I would love to hear exactly why Urban Outfitters thought that sweatshirt was okay. #sickening

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