Banned at Macy's

Macy's got some Latino folks up in arms recently for carrying a novetly tee that read "Brown is the New White" I'm not quite sure why that's so offensive, but oh well. A Hispanic marketing expert who commented for the above-linked article didn't help enlighten me either. Dr. Ed Rinco said:

"Macy's doesn't know a whole lot about what Hispanics want in the way of clothing. It also says that Macy's doesn't understand Hispanic culture. More importantly, it says that Macy's doesn't understand the Hispanics that lives in the U.S. and the kinds of products they are looking for," Rincon said. However, Rincon said some Hispanic customers might enjoy and even purchase the shirt.

Anyway, I wanted to check out the company that sells the tees, and it turns out you can buy them on a site called Surropa. Interestingly enough, the company formed in order to provide Latinos with clothing they can relate to:

"We started Surropa.com because we saw a need to offer products that speak to Latinos from both aesthetic and cultural perspectives. This site will not be the Taco Bell equivalent for "Latino" clothing. We promise to carefully select only those brands whose designs come straight from the source, the streets of Latin America...No crunch tortillas filled with hamburger...This is the real stuff."

It seems the only label it carries is Naco (which I think I read is some play on a slur of Spanish people). All the blah-blah-blahing aside, I really loved some of the tees. Here are three of my favorites:


^^We have these icie carts in Brooklyn, but not with the bicylcle attached.

^^This one reminds me of my neighbor. He sells these kinds of bicycles. I posted up some photographs of them on this blog a while ago and now I can't find the post. Oh well.

^^My favorite! I love anything sneaker-hanging-over-a-wire related. I bought a photograph a while back of the same image. When you stop seeing sneakers on wires, you know the hood is changing and the money--for better and worse--is on its way in.

And you know the funny thing? When I was just on the site pulling images, there was a little note stating how they've recently been hit by huge demand (no doubt thanks to the story of their banning at Macy's) and thus are a little behind on fulfillment. Ha--maybe brown is the new white!