About That Kent State Sweatshirt...
In general, maybe it's not such a good idea for businesses to get rid of all the expensive old people.
About That Kent State Sweatshirt...
In general, maybe it's not such a good idea for businesses to get rid of all the expensive old people.
You're being far more generous than I am if you're willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Nobody involved in this decision saw the shirt and thought of the massacre? Which happened when my mother was still in high school, yet I immediately knew what the hubbub was about, as did every one of my Gen X and Millenial friends. I simply don't buy that they were shocked - shocked! - that anyone would look at this shirt and think of the massacre. Every part of this is a failure of marketing.
Beth Cartwright at September 16, 2014 7:47 AM
OK Urban Outfitter, What was you intent when designed and marketed a "bloody" Kent state hoody? Do any of your other college shirts have fake blood incorporated into the design? Just asking?
Shtetl G at September 16, 2014 8:00 AM
Really?
Where are the sun-faded red sweatshirts from other universities with what are not bloodstains on them?
A quick look at the Web site didn't run up any other faded college sweatshirts with discoloration splotches.
==============================
What the heck does Wall Street have to do with this? Or is somebody using this to inject his own politics into it and make an irrelevant political statement?
Conan the Grammarian at September 16, 2014 8:11 AM
They couldn't even get it right. Blood that old would be brown, not red.
Steve Daniels at September 16, 2014 8:54 AM
Did anyone bother going to the website hawking the goods?
They wanted $129 for them.
Take a minute, let that sink in. Some people have more money than sense.
Of course, I'll note that more than a few of the outraged voices see no problem with donning a Che shirt, so...
I R A Darth Aggie at September 16, 2014 9:12 AM
They knew precisely what they were doing, and it worked... they sold out of those $129?!?!?!? Sweatshirts, to people who, no doubt, think it's "edgy" or something.
They did the ersatz mea culpa with a wink... but who of those complaining would actually shop there anyway?
Assuming they are in business in 10 years, expect a 9/11 themed shirt to piss off mom and dad - by fake punk kids, who have no idea what it's like to wear jeans until you wear real holes in them, when you can buy them in the store pre worn... and who absolutely, positively do not realize that their "authenticity" has all been done before.
The best part is the look on their faces when you pull out pictures of yourself with a REAL blue mohawk, taken when you were escorted from school... even better - pull out that picture of their grandmother, wearing a miniskirt that went-up-to-HERE, during her mod days in the 60's. Then solemnly intone: "imagine my surprise."
it's all been done before, but you used to have to actually do it, you couldn't buy it off a rack... so essentially this is corporate manufactured rebellion. Total posership.
SwissarmyD at September 16, 2014 9:28 AM
"Oh, no! My dog ate the Kent State sweatshirt I wore the day of the massacre! Where am I going to get another one? Oh, never mind."
Fayd at September 16, 2014 10:54 AM
>> "The one-of-a-kind item was
>> purchased as part of our sun-faded
>> vintage collection.
> Where are the sun-faded red sweatshirts
> from other universities with what are
> not bloodstains on them?
That's the point... There aren't any.
Listen, here's how it went down. In 1973, a babyboomer paint-stained this one sweatshirt as a joke for a Halloween party. This happened:
Then they went home and the guy put the sweatshirt away and made a family. One of his teenage kids took the sweatshirt out of the attic and wore it a few times, not knowing that it was a joke. The teenager didn't know anything about Kent State. Then he donated it to Goodwill. Then a fashionista from Urban Outfitters bought it from Goodwill to resell it just because it was a faded old sweatshirt. The fashionista didn't know anything about Kent State. Then the website guy put it on the website. The website guy didn't know anything about Kent State.This wasn't corporate malfeasance. These items weren't manufactured.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at September 16, 2014 11:36 AM
I mean, I see what Amy's getting at by keeping a few old people on the staff. But a company as large as U.O. will never have the resources to check each item of used merchandise for inside jokes this way.
It's only offensive if you think they were from an assembly line in Xiamen.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at September 16, 2014 11:43 AM
Bill Ayers has a teaching gig. Robert Fassnacht is dead. Jane Fonda didn't swing from a rope. My outrage is reserved for more deserving targets than a company that wanted to make a few bucks off those with more money than sense.
MarkD at September 16, 2014 2:19 PM
Cridmo has it right.
Urban Outfitters is hipster fashion. Essentially they take yard sale/Goodwill/flea market clothing they buy for a couple bucks, relabel it as handcrafted/hand selected and jack up the price.
They don't know what the stuff they buy references and don't care because their target demographic is only interested in looking vintage.
If you wanna know how full circle things have come right now the clothing trend among their target demographic is.......
THE FUCKING 90s
Ppen at September 16, 2014 2:26 PM
> My outrage is reserved for more
> deserving targets than a company
> that wanted to make a few bucks off
> those with more money than sense.
☑
> They don't know what the stuff
> they buy references and
> don't care
☑
And we don't know, or care, what it references for them.
I'm not a fashionable person, but I live in a fashionable place, and have been to a lot of parties with stylish people. (I'm a video technician and look like one... Let's just say they find me non-threatening.)
Here's the thing... Even in younger days, when the girltail up in the $wish Alps looked really sweet and I had impulses to compete in exotic contexts, fashion was a foreign language. I didn't know what just-the-right haircut or boot style or denim brand was signalling, and I know don't now. But the people who do know can communicate in that language. If they want spend the money for just the meaning, why shouldn't they?
$129 for an unremarkable sweatshirt is a stupid price, until someone wants to pay it. And then, retroactively, the person ready to offer that sweatshirt has created wealth. This is magic, but it's very real, and it made human (western/capitalist) civilization something to admire. He or she has moved assets from a lower-valued purpose (filling a bundled plastic bag in the basement) to a higher-valued one (hipster clothing).
There's a recession on... Isn't that what we want? Don't we want people to create wealth by making others happy?… And not just happy, but demonstrably happy, as in 'That guy from Echo Park wanted it so bad he paid $129!'?
I did Amy's first comment on this two days ago because I (foolishly, really foolishly) assumed that some major corporation had done this for the outrage... Like typing 'juicy' on the asses of teenage girls, or smirkingly naming a sportswear line FCUK. Kent State was stupid violence, not playful sex, so it seemed unnecessarily crass.
But that sweatshirt was an old joke from guy smoking weed in the 1970's, and he probably doesn't even remember making it. If I saw him wearing it on Halloween, I laughed. But I wouldn't remember either. There was weed at those parties.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at September 16, 2014 4:47 PM
The 90s had a fashion?
Conan the Grammarian at September 16, 2014 5:00 PM
All those kids in their brand spankin' new CBGB or Ramones t-shirts have no idea what those reference - other than something old that was once cool ... and authentic.
I recently worked in fashion. One of the most important attributes for clothing to have to the coveted 16-24 demographic was authenticity. I don't think the 16-24 demographic understands what authentic really means. As SwissarmyD pointed out at September 16, 2014 9:28 AM, they don't earn their authenticity, they buy their authenticity.
Conan the Grammarian at September 16, 2014 5:10 PM
The only thought that came to my mind was...
Fuck urban outfitters and the piece of shit who came up with this shirt.
DrCos at September 16, 2014 5:34 PM
"they don't earn their authenticity, they buy their authenticity."
Eh well.....kinda....sorta. If you worked in fashion (and I don't know in what capacity, but I'm gonna assume you're not a fashion guy) "authenticity" is just a bullshit term like "chic" used to be.
Even Zara uses the term " authentic" and they're just selling women in their 30s legal knockoffs of brands like Dior. .
Modern fashion is "fast fashion" something no generation has ever experienced. They capture a trend and pump out the actual clothing in one week. Dump it the next.
Urban Outfitters is a social media brand worn by Instagram girls. Their primary goal is to look cute and their secondary goal is to look edgy without actually being edgy against the opinion of their peers.
So for all those that say they actually had to do fashion in their day and it was actually authentic well I can't help but chuckle. Fashion has always been extremely repetitive and peer enforced. Maybe your school admin thought that mini skirt was vulgar but I guarantee you your friends didnt. That's how fashion works, the opinion of those outside your social circle don't matter. Those that don't speak your language don't matter. But you'll sure as hell pretend you created that language.
And people count on that when selling you a $2000 plain white cotton tee with the Hermes logo on it.
Ppen at September 16, 2014 6:34 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/09/16/about_that_kent.html#comment-5088668">comment from PpenPpen, always love when you write about shoes and fashion. And you're absolutely right.
Amy Alkon at September 16, 2014 9:23 PM
Thanks Amy.
Ppen at September 17, 2014 2:15 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/09/16/about_that_kent.html#comment-5092220">comment from PpenI love people who teach me things and you always do -- and really interesting, unexpected, off-the-beaten path stuff, too.
Amy Alkon at September 17, 2014 2:51 PM
Marketing research and analytics. I analyzed sales trends and market penetration.
There was a time when I was on top of all the trends for my own personal consumption. These days, I stick with the classics and mostly follow the latest trends through work and various nieces and nephews.
That's the point I was trying to make.
Younger consumers want "authentic" without actually understanding what it means.
"Authentic" showed up in numerous surveys we commissioned or purchased as an important descriptor of the brands that millennials held in higher regard.
Many of the brands millennials rated the most authentic were also rated as higher-priced.
Our research showed that millennials tended to gravitate to the disposable fast fashion for trendiness and used the older brand items for wardrobe basics around which a look could be built.
Brand loyalty, once a standard of the industry, is dying; even among men, once a bulwark of brand loyalty.
As for purchased authenticity, the company I worked for used to sell various items of pre-distressed clothing - like jeans beaten up to look as if they had been worn by workmen in the 19th century (as if the wearer found them in an antique shop and they were actually vintage).
No hipster wants to achieve a workman's look by doing actual work in his trendy jeans. Better to purchase the authenticity.
That development is still giving the older companies fits. Zara or H&M have items on the shelf in response to the latest micro-trends before the establishment companies have even heard of them.
Smaller and emerging markets are big on fast fashion. The last global research summary I read indicated that fast fashion is growing fast in South American cities.
I have a feeling that as the younger generation settles down and markets mature, the lower quality of fast fashion will eventually slow that trend down. As the millennials have kids and start looking for things that last, they're going to start looking for clothing that stands the test of time - both in terms of quality and lasting style.
Conan the Grammarian at September 17, 2014 6:21 PM
Wow what an amazing compliment. Thank you! You've made my day.
I really appreciate you've created this amazing community on this blog and allow us to speak uncensored. Very interesting group of people you've attracted on here.
Ppen at September 17, 2014 7:02 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/09/16/about_that_kent.html#comment-5093142">comment from PpenThanks, Ppen. I absolutely love the blog community here and so many of the regulars in it and love reading people's uncensored thoughts.
Amy Alkon at September 17, 2014 7:30 PM
But my gripe is who cares? Why are Millennials stomped on for supposedly being inauthentic "poseurs"? They're no more or less fastidious and annoying than previous generations when it comes to fashion.
The key difference that most people don't understand is that our technology is available to cater to their superficial whims in real time. Something that has never been experienced before. Even the quality of fast fashion has increased over time.
( I stopped at Forever 21 the other day and was amazed at how much better the textiles felt than when my mother didn't allow me to purchase that garbage)
Latin Americans btw love cheap looking clothing. You'll never be able to convince them it ain't cheap shit--it's a cultural thing. Hard to explain. Makes sense why fast fashion is blowing up there. Last time I was in Bolivia I saw the traditional textile makers out of business and my friend complain about the Koreans and their clothing and their Chinese food.
Ppen at September 17, 2014 8:13 PM
They're certainly no less poseurs than the hippies who shook off their middle- and upper-middle-class upbringings, grew their hair, donned faded jeans and headbands, and pretended to solidarity with the working classes - all while getting law degrees and MBAs from Ivy League colleges.
Conan the Grammarian at September 18, 2014 9:07 AM
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