Retailers Proud to Celebrate Pride

The number of retailers in the U.S., Canada, and U.K. offering limited-edition merchandise collections timed to Pride events—held mostly in June in North America and across the summer months in Britain—has been growing each year. Some of 2018’s participants include:

• Bloomingdale’s, which teamed with t-shirt maker Native Son on a Pride-themed capsule collection designed by the latter’s founder Emil Wilbekin. Ten percent of proceeds go to the Native Son Foundation, which supports the black gay male community.
• Paperchase, which collaborated with designer, pop artist, and gay icon Philip Normal on a limited-edition line of stationery featuring glitter, faux fur, rainbow colors, slogans, and other eye-catching design elements. Normal has a shop in the Brixton neighborhood of London.
• Gap, which created a We Are One collection encompassing a tote, cap, and t-shirt, with a portion of proceeds going to the U.N. Foundation’s Free & Equal campaign. The collection is sold in selected stores in the U.S. and Canada, as well as online.
• H&M, which launched a slogan-filled collection of t-shirts, jackets, and socks for men and women under the Love for All banner. Ten percent of retail sales are, as with the Gap campaign, being donated to Free & Equal.
• Macy’s, which this year continues its annual Pride + Joy initiative, covering parade activations, in-store events, window displays, and local charity support, as well as specially created merchandise. Products include a capsule collaboration with Kenneth Cole focused on the latter’s Tied with Pride campaign, featuring gender-neutral t-shirts, socks, hats, and sneakers, as well as items from Calvin Klein, Michael Kors, Levi’s, 2(x)ist, and American Rag.

Fashion brands, beyond retailers, also have become active in Pride collections over the years, often through designer or celebrity collaborations, with recent examples including Nike, River Island, Burberry, Converse, and Supreme, among others.

It should be noted that while retailers’ Pride collections have become increasingly widespread and mainstream, they still can generate controversy. In some cases, the programs are targeted by conservative political groups, for instance, while in other cases the retailers can be accused of jumping on the Pride bandwagon for purely economic reasons (“pinkwashing”).

The latter was the case for Primark’s 2018 Pride Collection, consisting of t-shirts, caps, board shorts, and fanny packs and sold in the U.K., Europe, and U.S. Some Pride parade organizers and consumers on social media have criticized the retailer for selecting leading U.K. gay rights group Stonewall as its sole partner (20% of proceeds go to the organization) rather than local Pride groups in the U.K. and other countries where the collection is available. They also object to the fact that Primark had the products manufactured in Turkey and Myanmar, whose governments have taken steps to curb LGBTQ rights.