Photo by Justin Louis. Instagram: @sweetloo35

What do the Chicago Blackhawks, Washington Redskins, and Cleveland Indians have in common? Sport and its continued appropriation of Indigenous culture.

Section 35, a B.C.-based apparel company, is pushing back. Founded by friends Justin Louis and Andrew Kazakoff, Section 35 tackles Indigenous stereotypes head-on with political statements people can wear.

“You can still create conversation with clothing, but in a way that people can enjoy wearing it,” says Louis, who is from the Samson Cree Nation in Alberta and is currently based in the Coast Salish Territory of Vancouver. While the designs themselves are conversation starters, so is the company’s name. “Section 35” alludes to the section in the Constitution Act of 1982 that protects Aboriginal treaty rights to land, fish, log, and hunt.

The company carries everything from leggings designed with portraits of Indigenous matriarchs to ball caps resembling the Red Sox logo replaced with red moccasins. Their most popular collection called “Kill Mascots, Save the People,” created in collaboration with Chicago-based artist Santiago X, brings awareness to Indigenous imagery that’s misrepresented and misused on sports teams’ jerseys.

Starting a clothing line was the last thing the two friends thought would happen when they first met playing baseball. As a descendant of Russian immigrants, Kazakoff believed in the message of inclusion that Louis hoped to spread.

Their message has since infiltrated pop culture, with members from A Tribe Called Red and Major Lazer sporting their designs.

But whether their designs are worn by celebrities or by Indigenous youth, Louis says he simply wants people to “be able to speak their truth a little bit and not be ashamed of who they are.”

Why foster your own cultural innovation and creativity when you can pillage and exploit the cultures that you’ve already ravaged for centuries!? Apparently, companies have decided not to explore all the great amounts of non-offensive and really awesome art coming out of the West, because ignorantly capitalizing on the sacred image of Ganesha is just way more fun. It’s no biggie that we’re settlers on a brutally colonized land that was stolen from Indigenous people, because the genocides of the past can be so easily forgotten when you make Navajo-inspired underwear. Hey, let’s throw in a shirt reminiscent of the horrors of the Holocaust. Cultural insensitivity is so chic, don’t you know?

Is it just me, or do half the necklaces they’ve been selling these days look like they went through my Grandma’s jewelry box and stole my family heirlooms? Yeah, probably.

But in case cultural appropriation isn’t your thing, why not capitalize on a university shooting or serious mental illnesses? Nothing says fashion like trivializing eating disorders.

Apparently, when I was wearing my Hamsa necklace—a popular symbol in the Middle East that is thought to ward off bad luck and the evil eye—this somehow made me a “Spiritual Gangster.” Yes, that’s the name of this top: “Spiritual Gangster Henna Hamsa Tank Top.” Urban Outfitters never fails to get my eyes rolling.

Seriously Urban Outfitters, you’ve got some nice clothes—I won’t lie—but every now and then you manage to create an item that is heinously awful and ignorant.

Urban Outfitters is a repeat offender of crimes of cultural appropriation, blatant insensitivity, and just, well laziness. With the vast abundance of art and design in this world, and the magical portal of information and exploration that is the Internet, you would think UO could come up with something better-looking and less offensive. I guess being called out dozens of times for really awful clothing concepts hasn’t gotten through to the retailer. Many of the products shown and mentioned above have been pulled from the store, because of the enormous backlash. But not to worry, UO will certainly be back with more!

And let’s be clear here: Urban Outfitters is not the only clothing brand doing this. Every day as I walk down the street, I see more of my culture and the cultures of others being sold as meaningless commodities in store windows. I can’t exactly boycott all these stores, or else I’d have nowhere else left to shop. So I bear the ignorance and go for the non-offensive and, of course, inexpensive goods instead.