Fashion brand under fire for ‘grotesque’ Irish crime gang design

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Sep 15, 2017

An online fashion brand has had to take a range of clothing items off sale after facing backlash on social media for its controversial designs.

The items were printed with the words ‘Team Hutch’ and ‘Team Kinahan’, referencing two Irish crime gangs involved in a war that has claimed the lives of 12 people in the past two years.

The ‘Team Hutch’ t-shirt came emblazoned with the message ‘Old Skool Motherfucker’ and an image of a knuckleduster, while the ‘Team Kinahan’ style depicted an Uzi machine gun and the slogan ‘Cartel Motherfucker’.

The Irish-based online company, part of German online retailer Spreadshirt, has apologised for the designs and admitted the range was a “stupid idea”.

Before withdrawing the range, it had issued advice to its shoppers, saying “Craic Clothing takes no responsibility if you’re stupid enough to wear this around town and get ‘injured’.”

The Hutch Kinahan feud began in September 2015 and has resulted in several murders, violent crimes and shootings in Ireland and abroad. The gangs have been fighting since the murder of Gary Hutch on Spain’s Costa del Sol, and last year gunmen loyal to the Hutch family stormed into a hotel in Dublin, killing a member of the Kinahan cartel.

Social media users branded the collection as 'grotesque', with one user writing "What were they thinking!?''