Urban Outfitters has recently pulled a pair of socks from their store featuring the Hindu deity Ganesh after backlash from members of the Hindu community who found the $8 socks to be offensive, the Huffington Post reports.
"Lord Ganesh was highly revered in Hinduism and was meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to be wrapped around one's foot," the President of the Universal Society of Hinduism Rajan Zed said in a statement, requesting not only that the socks be removed from Urban Outfitter's website, but that Richard A. Hayne, Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer of Urban Outfitters, Inc., and Tedford Marlow, Chief Executive Officer of Urban Outfitters Group, formally apologize as well.
"We sincerely apologize if we offended the Hindu community and our customers," an Urban Outfitters spokesperson said in a statement sent to HuffPost. "We appreciate Rajan Zed and the Universal Society of Hinduism for bringing this matter to our attention and for helping us understand the cultural and religious sensitivities this product carries. We will remove the Ganesh Socks immediately from our website and stores."
This certainly isn't the first time that the clothing company has caused controversy with an offensive item. From the "Irish I Was Drunk" tank top which upset members of the Irish-American community (as well as an "Irish Yoga" trucker hat featuring a stick figure vomiting and a similar t-shirt) to the v-neck that read "Eat Less" on the front and even a shirt that appeared to mimic the design of the Star of David that Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust, Urban Outfitters is no stranger to creating scandals.
The company has also been under fire for allegedly ripping off independent designers, appropriating Native American culture with "Navajo-inspired" designs and even being outright racist by selling "Ghettopology," a "ghetto" version of Monopoly that angered the African-American community.
Thanks Urban Outfitters for understanding the concerns of upset Hindus & thus apologizing & removing socks carrying image of Lord Ganesh.
— Rajan Zed (@rajanzed) December 17, 2013
