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Urban Outfitters
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Urban Outfitters, Inc. | |
 |
|
| Type | Public (NASDAQ: URBN) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1970 |
| Headquarters | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Key people | Chairman: Richard Hayne |
| Industry | Retail (Apparel) |
| Products | Clothing, footware, housewares |
| Revenue |  $1.13 Billion USD (2004) |
| Net income | $448.61 Million USD (2005) |
| Employees | 7,500 (2006) |
| Website | www.urbanoutfitters.com |
Urban Outfitters, Inc. NASDAQ: URBN owns and operates three retail clothing brands: Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Free People. The first store opened in 1970 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, focusing on "funky" fashion and household products. Today, the Urban Outfitters line has expanded from vintage, bohemian, retro, ironically humorous, kitschy, and oddly designed apparel and furniture to include many luxury brands such as Lacoste, Evisu, Diesel, True Religion and Seven for All Mankind. Currently headquartered in the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Urban operates more than 140 shops in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
The president of Urban Outfitters, Richard Hayne, became controversial in early 2004 when the company advertised t-shirts bearing the slogan "Voting is for Old People." During the media hubbub that followed, journalists revealed that Hayne had contributed over $10,000 to Republican Senator Rick Santorum.
At one time, the store sold a magnet set depicting a crucified Jesus Christ that one could dress up and put various phrases on. This item was later pulled after a public backlash. However, the chain has not backed down from selling t-shirts of all stripes that are generally aimed at mocking various social stereotypes and prejudices, not by contradicting them, but by humorously playing them up. Among notable examples are their shirt with the phrase "Everyone Loves a Jewish Girl" surrounded by money signs and their shirt with the phrase "Jesus is My Homeboy". Both have been taken up in popular culture by the groups they were "defaming" and become wildly popular, so much so that they have attained cultural icon status among American teenagers.
Recently, the retailer has come under fire [1] for offering sparkly handgun-shaped Christmas ornaments in its hometown of Philadelphia - a city that had seen over 1,700 shootings and over 300 gun-related murders for the year[2], through the end of November, 2006. [3]
On Saint Patrick's Day in 2006 they began selling shirts that read, "Erin Go Fuck Yourself", a parody of the Irish phrase "Erin Go Bragh".
The Anti-Defamation League has repeatedly condemned them.[4]
The store has also, alledgedly without permission, used shirt designs created by small, independent clothing lines; namely, Johnny Cupcakes and Crown Farmer.