Urban Outfitters, purveyor of super-tight pink skinny jeans and belly-button skimming v-neck tees for dudes, is coming under intense pressure from gay rights groups and Miley Cyrus. Is it time to boycott the hipster factory?
Urban Outfitters is having a rough press month. After being outed for ripping off independent jewelry designers, the Twittersphere has reawakened vitriol about the founder’s anti-gay campaign contributions.
Even Miley Cyrus joined the online anti-Urban Outfitters chatter last week, pointing out that president and founder Richard Hayne donated $13,150 to the political campaigns of Rick “gay sex leads to man-on-dog love-making” Santorum. She even went so far as to call the retailer “#SHADYASHELL.” Sharp words from the super-chill salvia-smoking teeny-bopper.
The one message uniting blog posts and Tweets aimed at Urban Outfitters is that it’s time to boycott the company and its brands, Anthropologie and Free People.
This sounds like a difficult boycott to mobilize, due to the store’s immense popularity. I shop at Urban Outfitters. While most of the clothing fits awkwardly and falls apart too quickly, the sale rack in the back is one of the few places where I can afford to buy a cute dress. It’s also by far the most convenient. But it’s worth pointing out that if everyone who supports gay marriage decided to collectively quit Urban Outfitters and its sister brands for just a few months, they could freak some people out.
According to Wikipedia, Urban Outfitters has over 140 locations, supports upwards of 75 Anthropologies, and rakes in yearly revenue to the tune of $1.83 billion. A recent Gallup Poll suggested that 53% of Americans support gay marriage, and one can assume that among the young, “hip,” Urban Oufitters-wearing crowd that number is higher. If all—or even half— of pro-gay rights customers committed to quit the brand for one quarter (3 months) they would draw substantial press and cut deeply into the store’s revenue for 2011. Make it 75% of pro-gay shoppers for two quarters and the company would start bleeding all over their floral jumpsuits and rubbery braided belts.
Urban Outfitters is confusing. The store sells funky duds that seem to aim at liberal, urban youth. In 2008 U.O. sold the Obama Head tees like hot cakes, as well as an anti-Prop 8 t-shirt with the words “I Support Same-Sex Marriage.” In what seemed like an effort to further confuse the customer, the latter tee was pulled from the shelves because “they weren’t selling.”
In 2008, ThisIsMoney.co.uk hit it on the head when they wrote, “Hayne must be the only retailer whose expansion plans depend on no one finding out who he really is.”
Many supporters of gay marriage are frustrated by how little is achieved by casting a vote for a pro-gay candidate. If that representative is elected, he or she is sent to haggle for rights with Republican lawmakers who usually, though not always, object to gay rights, as well as Democrats who are slow as shit to get anything done.
If U.O. shoppers could organize (and they can), America’s urban youth and older people who dress too young for their age could send a message to corporations and Washington.
Then, hopefully, we could all go back to buying semi-affordable, super-convenient shredded denim shorts and graphic tees.





June 01, 2011 at 4:21 pm, Stinkybirdp said:
I don’t see why the gay community is so eager to settle down…marriage sucks balls…and UO is the one and only place I shop at…I’m all for equal rights but if this leads to the downfall of UO…it might turn into an all out gay-hipster war…I mean thrift shops can only do so much.
June 01, 2011 at 4:24 pm, Fletcher said:
Glen Senk, Urban Outfitters CEO is the only openly gay CEO in a Fortune 500 company. I think following the founder Richard Hayne around about something that occured over a decade ago is beating a dead horse. People change.
June 01, 2011 at 11:49 pm, X said:
More like “Urban Outfitters Faces Boycott Over Having Ugly, Overpriced Clothes”
June 02, 2011 at 7:29 pm, Guest said:
You write an article about Urban Outfitters and gay rights and fail to mention that the CEO of the company is openly gay? Shoddy journalism.
June 03, 2011 at 2:45 am, Mandykur said:
How is this tore for hipsters what with the fact that they mass-produce everything?Real hipsters don’t shop at this place.Hipsters shopping at this place is a stereotype.
January 03, 2012 at 5:38 pm, Frank Sellers said:
I think the ability to buy a cute dress trumps human rights any day!
January 18, 2012 at 8:38 am, Wam said:
Miss Cyrus would actually better care for her own shitty turn-teens-into-bad-tasted-stupid-Disney-consumers business. Her stance may prove harmful to her Midwest conservative teenager audience.
February 10, 2012 at 4:21 am, Britta Loucas said:
THANK YOU. so well spoken.
February 10, 2012 at 12:05 pm, Jenson Lawrence said:
I'm boycotting that stuff already
February 11, 2012 at 3:37 pm, a1068994 said:
I’ve said that least 1068994 times. SCK was here
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March 01, 2012 at 9:51 pm, Sarah Stix Krikstone said:
I will admit it. I was once (very recently) a fan of Urban Outfitters and Anthropology Stores…I mean who doesn't love Anthropology? But then I was enlightened….Thank you to Jason for showing me the light.
March 28, 2012 at 6:30 pm, Kristopher J Summa said:
interesting…
April 01, 2012 at 4:18 pm, Ariana Spiewak said:
What a disappointment.
April 09, 2012 at 7:28 pm, Tracy Lesperance said:
Oh what a bummer. I loveAnthropologie but am more than willing to give it all up til this guy gets a big clue.
April 10, 2012 at 1:42 am, Dorothy Proctor said:
yeah I read about him awhile back..a real pig!!
April 20, 2012 at 11:44 pm, Mary Lang Obodzinski said:
and they un-abashedly steal artists' designs to mass produce…urban counterfeiters. I would never shop there or Anthropology.
July 26, 2012 at 2:51 pm, Kristen Christian said:
Yes! Few know about this shady dealings. LA-based street artist Cali Killa won a lawsuit against them over a design of his they stole for a t-shirt.
May 02, 2012 at 2:54 pm, Tony Camacho said:
Perhaps my fiance and I will dedicate our gay wedding on August 31, 2013 to anti-gay rights supporters!
July 25, 2012 at 9:32 pm, We Didn’t Invent the (Gay) Chicken Sandwich « Thisisyourbarry's Blog said:
[...] I get a little hipster on your faces for a second? Thanks. Urban Outfitters isn’t into supporting gay rights, and not just because folks failed to see the obvious irony in selling Robert Mapplethorpe [...]
July 26, 2012 at 3:47 pm, Christine Basil said:
I don't think sister companies that voice no similar opinions to that of Urban Outfitters should be ousted as "#SHADYASHELL" simply because their financially aided by this anti-gay company head. If that many people feel so affected by his words, then I say work to oust the people responsible instead of putting millions of jobs on the line because one person decided to voice his opinion. Well, voice and write a fat check of course.
August 04, 2012 at 10:05 pm, Marty Russell Woodcock said:
Why not? An admiral of a fleet of ships is responsible for each ship and its crew, and they are under the command of the admiral. Why can that not be the case for businesses owned by another business?
August 01, 2012 at 4:37 pm, The day I realized that I was too old to go into Urban Outfitters | Death and Taxes said:
[...] CA – yet that is strictly for personal reasons. The second one is Urban Outfitters, because they donate money to anti-gay senators. But that bigotry isn’t what I’m here to talk about. Not here. Not in this [...]
March 28, 2013 at 5:20 pm, These 4 Major Brands DON’T Want To Be Associated With The Gay Marriage Movement | Business Insider Australia said:
[...] tee-shirts in California. Its president and founder Richard Hayne also came under fire for donating $13,500 to Rick Santorum, who has said that homosexuality is “not healthy” for [...]
March 29, 2013 at 4:12 pm, These 4 Major Brands DON’T Want To Be Associated With The Gay Marriage Movement said:
[...] tee-shirts in California. Its president and founder Richard Hayne also came under fire for donating $13,500 to Rick Santorum, who has said that homosexuality is “not healthy” for [...]
May 30, 2013 at 3:03 pm, It Isn't Just Abercrombie: The Sins of Other Retailers. said:
[...] companies that have come under fire for apparent anti-same-sex marriage actions include Urban Outfitters, Exxon-Mobil, Wal-Mart, among [...]