Urban Outfitters

Urban Outfitters, Inc. is an American retail company that operates the Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People, Leifsdottir, and Terrain brands. Urban Outfitters is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with over 300 retail outlets around the United States, Canada and Europe. The stores sell various, higher end, brands of clothing, footwear, and household items. http://www.urbn.com/profile/urban.html

The first Urban Outfitters was opened in Philadelphia in 1970, as "The Free People's Store." The Free People's Store geared their products toward a more eclectic style of clothing and goods. Soon after the store was opened, owner Richard Hayne, decided to rename the outlet Urban Outfitters. http://www.urbn.com/profile/urban.html Urban Outfitters targeted an artsy, 18-30-year-old demographic.

In 1984, Urban Outfitters expanded, establishing the Free People brand. The Free People brand offered a distinctive line of clothing and accessories for young women in the U.S. http://www.urbn.com/profile/freepeople.html The company continued to grow, opening Anthropologie stores in 1992. Anthropologie’s target demographic was women between the ages of 30 and 45. Anthropologie operates through retail stores in the United States, and direct shipping to outlets worldwide. http://www.urbn.com/profile/anthropologie.html In 2008 Urban Outfitters added two more brands; Leifsdottir - a more sophisticated wholesale apparel line, and a home and garden shop called Terrain, whose flagship store is in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania. http://www.urbn.com/profile/terrain.html

Urban Outfitters offers several lines of clothing, shoes, and accessories at their 130 retail stores throughout the world, and through their online shop. While not all lines are available at every outlet, lines that Urban Outfitters offer include:

• Adidas
• Alexander Girard
• All-Son
• Alternative Apparel
• Asics
• BDG
• Bed Stu
• Ben Sherman
• Betsey Johnson
• The Brothers Bray & Co.
• byCORPUS
• Calvin Klein
• Cheap Monday
• Chronicle
• Clarks
• COMUNE
• Converse
• Cooperative
• Crosley
• D Collection
• Deena & Ozzy
• Deux Lux
• Diesel
• Dolce Vita
• Double in Brass
• Ecote
• Fletcher by Lyell
• Fred Perry
• Frye
• The Furies
• Grey Antics by Grey Ant
• H by Hudson
• Havaianas
• Hawks by Geren Ford
• Holga
• Incase
• Ion
• Jansport
• Jeffrey Campbell
• Kidrobot
• Kimchi Blue
• Lark & Wolff by Steven Alan
• Levis
• life/after/denim
• Lomography
• Loomstate
• Lucca Couture
• MINKPINK
• Minnetonka
• Mirror/Dash
• NEAL by Neal Sperling
• Never Sleep by Rogues Gallery
• Nike
• Nom de Plume YaYa
• Obey
• The Outcast
• Palladium
• PARTYPARTY by CONFETTISYSTEM
• Pins and Needles
• Pro Keds
• Quoddy
• Reformed
• Sabina
• Salt Valley
• Seychelles
• Shades of Greige
• Silence & Noise
• Sparkle & Fade
• Spiewak
• Standard
• Stüssy
• Tikirani
• Timberland
• Timo
• Toddland
• Tretorn
• Truly Madly Deeply
• Urban Renewal
• Vans
• Vasia By Ulla Johnson
• We Who See
• Wildfox Couture
• Yellow is Gold by Sunshine & Shadow
• Zig Zag
• Zuriickhttp://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/category.jsp?specialCategory=false&navAction=jump&navCount=0&itemCount=&id=BRANDS

Since the store’s opening, Urban Outfitters has gained a reputation for selling fashion-forward, and often times ironic merchandise. Despite the brand being known for carrying more divisive items, the company has come under scrutiny for some of its more daring products. Urban Outfitters has in the past received complaints from Jewish groups regarding certain items, like a T-shirt that read "Everyone Loves a Jewish Girl" surrounded by dollar signs in 2003, the sale of keffiyehs that had been advertised as antiwar scarves in 2007, and a T-shirt that featured a Palestinian child holding an AK-47 with the word "Victimized" beneath him in 2008.http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/986129.html

In 2003, Urban Outfitters was forced to pull a game, entitled Ghettopoly, after receiving criticism from the NAACP and other African-American groups.http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-10-09-ghettopoly_x.htm