A US streetwear brand has been slammed online for creating hoodies with the words “Sandy Hook” and “Columbine” featuring rips that look like bullet holes.
The brand called Bstroy was created by designers Brick Owens and Duey Catorze, who showcased their 2020 menswear collection in New York last Thursday.
Walking down the runway in various types of suits and T-shirts, nothing seemed out of the ordinary until models walked out in hoodies featuring the logos of four school that have faced mass shootings in recent times: Columbine, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, and Marjory Stoneman Douglas.
Furthermore, the hoodies appeared to have rips that looked very similar to bullet holes.
Bstroy posted the new collection, including photos of the hoodies, to Instagram, where its followers were quick to point out the faux pas.
One user wrote underneath a photo of the streetwear’s Sandy Hook-inspired hoodie: “Elementary school kids died — what is wrong with y’all”, while another wrote, “There are more productive ways of opening discourse than blatantly profiting off the deaths of 6-year-old children.”
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Under a picture of the hoodie inspired by Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, oner person wrote: “I lived through this.
“To make money off of something pathetic like this is disgusting. You don’t even know how it is to live every day with reminders everywhere you go.”
“There’s so much trauma within not only myself, but within thousands of other people who have experienced gun violence,” they added. “This is disgusting.”
In response to a comment on the hoodies where one person wrote, “Is it supposed to be cool to wear the location of a school shooting on your distressed hoodie,” Catroze simply replied “*Art”.
Owens then shared a photo on his personal Instagram of a note that appeared to be in relation to the collection.
“Sometimes life can be painfully ironic,” the note said. “Like the irony of dying violently in a place you consider to be a safe, controlled environment, like school.”
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“We are reminded all the time of life’s fragility, shortness, and unpredictability, yet we are also reminded of its infinite potential.
“It is this push and pull that creates the circular motion that is the cycle of life.”
Speaking to Insider, Catorze said Bstroy “wanted to make reference to the victims with reverence,” while also telling a story “that depicts them as heroes.”
