Minnesota Badgers onesie at Target

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GopherLady

GopherLady

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In case you hadn't seen it...


The Strib just did a piece on it:
"Color us red," Target said in a statement that leaned on the shade that the retail giant shares with the Badgers and is known to reveal embarrassment. "As a Minnesota-based company, we know we are home to the Gophers. We've worked with our vendor to remove this item and apologize to any sports fans who might have been left scratching their head."

http://www.startribune.com/target-s...USjbinxZn2G1Y_S18b8xohXdsjl9KhNFPJ7KZU1m6q8O4
 


A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
How does that get past the buyer?
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This is a question I had...I'm not in merchandising, so would love an explanation from anyone who is. I do know there are a LOT of steps to get a product made, and actually into the stores and on display. Was this actually a typo no one caught? Was it on purpose for MN/WI kids...and then there was backlash? Just wondering.
 




GopherLady said:
This is a question I had...I'm not in merchandising, so would love an explanation from anyone who is. I do know there are a LOT of steps to get a product made, and actually into the stores and on display. Was this actually a typo no one caught? Was it on purpose for MN/WI kids...and then there was backlash? Just wondering.
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A while back Target had some randomish graphic shirts.... turned out there were a bunch of not so subtle nazi references.

That I could understand someone not knowing.... this is wtf.
 

I thought for sure this had to be a joke when I first saw it, like a purposeful shirt to troll people or something. Either that or something for like people that attend Wisconsin but are from Minnesota?

If it was a mistake, that is a big mistake.
 

Can't we all just get along?
 





I never liked Target anyway. Now I can justify telling my wife I will wait in my truck. They could maybe hire somebody to proof what they are buying.
 

I wonder if anyone actually bought one before they were pulled from the shelf :)
 

This is a Minnesota sandwich. MMMM...BADgers.
 





Wonder if there's a WisconSIN Gophers shirt sitting on shelves in Madison.
 




I just assumed it was a reference to UW basketball and football recruiting.
 

GopherLady said:
This is a question I had...I'm not in merchandising, so would love an explanation from anyone who is. I do know there are a LOT of steps to get a product made, and actually into the stores and on display. Was this actually a typo no one caught? Was it on purpose for MN/WI kids...and then there was backlash? Just wondering.
Click to expand...
I’m in print marketing promo. They say in the printing business crazy off the wall stuff happens and does happen. Some company probably does promo items for gophers and badgers at least I’m hoping. Then the next step that happens from proofs , to client sign offs obviously didn’t happen. It’s probably some non sports fan in the graphics dept that pulled the complete insanity name together and put it into production. It’s a fictional story which actually unbelievably unfortunately for human intelligence sakes is true. Nothing more can be said because so many laws per say we’re broken it’s not believable.
 

I am the Director of a Merchandising Department and we proof everything. From what I have heard of Target, they are very intolerant of bad buys like this and basically buyers get one screw up and they are done. I would guess, based on that conversation that somebody lost their job over this. Not only because of the error but because of the scathing emails and phone calls I am sure they received from MN sports fans in the home state of Target. Retail is brutally competitive. Amazon is killing off brick and mortar businesses every day, no need to give them your business due to carelessness.
 

Target will remove them, but I am sure some were sold and will be listed on Ebay for big bucks.
 

tenor.gif
 

st.paultransplantGOPHER said:
I’m in print marketing promo. They say in the printing business crazy off the wall stuff happens and does happen. Some company probably does promo items for gophers and badgers at least I’m hoping. Then the next step that happens from proofs , to client sign offs obviously didn’t happen. It’s probably some non sports fan in the graphics dept that pulled the complete insanity name together and put it into production. It’s a fictional story which actually unbelievably unfortunately for human intelligence sakes is true. Nothing more can be said because so many laws per say we’re broken it’s not believable.
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That makes sense! I know a lot of friends in graphic design that know nothing about sports. Just seems like a lot of people had to miss it.

GopherDog1 said:
I am the Director of a Merchandising Department and we proof everything. From what I have heard of Target, they are very intolerant of bad buys like this and basically buyers get one screw up and they are done. I would guess, based on that conversation that somebody lost their job over this. Not only because of the error but because of the scathing emails and phone calls I am sure they received from MN sports fans in the home state of Target. Retail is brutally competitive. Amazon is killing off brick and mortar businesses every day, no need to give them your business due to carelessness.
Click to expand...

Gosh, I hope not. This was more funny than it was something someone should get fired over. I honestly thought it could be trolling. Another odd thing from the article is that they said there were 22 printed...do they really only print from one store. Seems like tons of work for 22 onesies, I thought they mass produced.
 


I wonder what Scott Frost thinks of onesies...…… It's technically not a hoodie, but it has a hood.
 

There were a couple questions in this thread as to how many were sold. I can't find the article I read yesterday, but it said that 24 were placed on the shelf in one store and two were sold before someone noticed and pulled the rest. If true, those will be a nice collector's item someday.
 

You expect to see these errors:
Michigan Spartans
Minnesota State Gophers
North Dakota Bisons

but Minnesota Badgers, that’s down right sabotage, an inside job. Very funny!
 

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