Design fails take so many forms that it can be hard to foresee every possible controversy. Sometimes a design can pass through multiple sign offs without raising a single concern only to be defenestrated within minutes when it's released into the wild.
Yesterday, the football club Oxford United launched a range of sportswear that it called the Campus Collection. It pulled the drop within just a few hours after people on social media immediately noticed an unintended link to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US. The club has apologised, but some of its supporters don't see the issue.
The Oxford United clothing designs featured text that read 'United 93' presented in the style of player numbers on football shirts. 'United' is part of the club's name, and the number was a reference to 1893, the year the club was founded.
The problem is that United 93 was one of four flights hijacked by al-Qaida on 11 September 2001. The plane crashed after passengers challenged the terrorists,
An English League one football club might not be expected to consider all potential connotations of that combination of name and number, but United 93 became particularly well known after being brought to the screen in a movie of the same name.
The debacle was made worse by the US-inspired style of the clothing designs, which seems kind of strange for an English football club. Oxford United had described the collection as “inspired by the style and culture of American sports."
What's more incredible is that it seems they were so close to realising that there could be a controversy. The club reportedly planned to launch the collection a week earlier on 11 September but delayed it due to concerns over the sensitivity of the date. If they had waited longer, there's a chance the designs wouldn't have drawn so much attention, but still nobody realised the potential misinterpretation of the slogan.
“The range was released without understanding of the historical context and associations”, the club said in an apology posted on social media “It should not have reached the point of sale and we take full responsibility for not undertaking proper due diligence.
“We have removed the collection with immediate effect and are reviewing our approval processes to ensure nothing like this happens again. Once again, we would like to put on record our sincere apologies for this error and any offence caused.”
Some Oxford United fans see the design blunder was unforgivable. One person wrote on the club's forum that it was a “monumental cock-up that I would expect to be sacked for if I’d signed off on it”.
However, others are defending the club. "Not everything revolves around America," one person writes on X.
"Class jersey, class idea. Literally zero to apologise for. Next Porsche will apologise for their 911," someone else wrote, referring to the German carmaker's iconic sports car.
What do you think? Was it necessary for a small English football club to consider the global connotations of its merchandise design?
