A US fashion company has plans to "modify and reclaim" kilts it was forced to discontinue as they were worn by protesters at a Donald Trump march.
A picture uploaded to Twitter yesterday showed protesters in Florida wearing black and yellow kilts as they kicked off a two-week March For Trump bus tour in the swing states he lost to Joe Biden.
Proud Boys in kilts. Dozens of them gathering downtown now for today’s March for Trump. pic.twitter.com/BTJWmGC6Yp
— Hannah Allam (@HannahAllam) December 12, 2020
They replied to the tweet saying they had donated $1000 to civil rights organisation National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Disgusted to see members of "Proud Boys" a fascist terrorist org wearing our products. We're LGBTQIA+ owned, operated, designed and lived. We're against everything they stand for. I see $750 of our gear in the picture - I just gave $1000 to the NAACP to redirect hate to love. pic.twitter.com/eMdwW8Azrj
— Verillas (@Verillas) December 12, 2020
“In the first moments I thought we were doomed,” Verillas’s VP of marketing, Justin LaRose told Dazed.
READ MORE: Fury as far-right group dons kilts for pro-Trump march
He went on: “I was looking at the scope of the replies and despairing at our lack of size and lack of voice. I had no idea how it could have happened – I felt like our views were transparent from our site.”
“It was insane to me that folks in that group could have used our stuff.”
He went on to say he wanted to "turn the tainted money into something for good”.
“Within the first hour my feeling of powerlessness was gone," he added. "It felt existentially wrong to be associated with that group of people and the first thing I realised is that taking gains from them was unacceptable.
“We weren’t satisfied with neutralising the situation, we had to counter it.”
LaRose said he didn't the company to be associated with the extremist associations so the kilts will no longer be sold in their current form.
He continued: “It hurt to do because we don’t like the idea of losing any ground to bigotry – the idea that they can just snatch up whatever they please and ruin it feels deeply wrong.
“But at the same time I didn’t want to sell that product to folks who would unwittingly associate themselves with an awful movement.”
He added: “We’ve got plans to modify them and reclaim [the kilts] in a way that can enhance our defiance.”
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