Gap Pulls T-Shirts After Indie-Rock Bands Protest
April 21 2016 - 7:10PM
Dow Jones News
Gap Inc. is pulling T-shirts displaying the names of two indie
rock bands from store shelves after the musicians accused the
retailer of selling the items without their permission.
The two groups, Cold War Kids and The Shins, discovered the
items last month and notified fans that the apparel chain wasn't
authorized to sell the shirts. After the controversy arose on
social media, Gap learned the third-party from which it had secured
rights didn't obtain the proper licenses to use the band names on
the merchandise, according to a person familiar with the
matter.
The company removed the shirts from its website in recent weeks
and started manually pulling the items from stores, this person
said. Gap declined to comment.
On March 21, Cold War Kids sought an explanation from the
retailer for selling a shirt with its name. "Woke up this morning
with messages from friends asking about @ColdWarKids shirt being
sold at @Gap," the band tweeted. "We have no clue where this came
from, no permission given, no secret million dollar deal. Anybody
@Gap wanna tell us what's going on?"
Cold War Kids, which is on tour and playing this month at the
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, said it received no
response or explanation from Gap despite multiple attempts to
contact the company over social media.
"The Gap /Cold War Kids shirt was designed and sold in stores
and online without our authorization or involvement," lead singer
Nathan Willett told The Wall Street Journal in an email. "We would
love to pursue legal action, but to what end? We are a blue collar
indie rock band and they are a massive corporation."
On Wednesday, Cold War Kids asked fans to start using a hashtag
to get the company's attention. "Help us out by retweeting
#nevermindthegap so we can make @Gap aware they can't steal shirts
from bands," the band tweeted to its 47,600 followers.
The Shins notified their followers on March 29 that the Gap
shirt bearing its name was unauthorized. "The Gap is selling a 'The
Shins' t-shirt that I never approved," the band posted on its
Facebook page. The band directed fans to its own website, where it
sells $25 T-shirts and other merchandise. The group, founded and
fronted by guitarist James Mercer, wasn't immediately available for
comment.
Gap has been closing stores and trying to reinvigorate its
namesake brand to be more appealing to millennials. Same-store
sales at the retailer have declined for four consecutive
quarters.
Analysts have cautioned that the company has lost relevance with
younger shoppers. Weak sales in March left the struggling retailer
with too many unsold goods that are expected to continue squeezing
profits in the current quarter.
Write to Khadeeja Safdar at khadeeja.safdar@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 21, 2016 18:55 ET (22:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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