Richard Hayne: President, CEO, and cofounder of the store Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, and Free People.

Urban Outfitters' target market are hipsters, around age 18-24, who are open-minded, creative, and not afraid to think outside the box. Hayne does not hold true to these morals that he advertises.

Questionable Products
According to the staff at The Week, there have been controversial products that have been discontinued.

Many products have been recalled because the public found them disturbing. Such as this Kent State seemingly blood-spattered sweater, which defiles the school and the memory of the Kent State shooting May 4, 1970.

Urban Outfitters' response:
"Urban Outfitters sincerely apologizes for any offense our Vintage Kent State Sweatshirt may have caused. It was never our intention to allude to the tragic events that took place at Kent State in 1970 and we are extremely saddened that this item was perceived as such. The one-of-a-kind item was purchased as part of our sun-faded vintage collection. There is no blood on this shirt, nor has this item been altered in any way. The red stains are discoloration from the original shade of the shirt and the holes are from natural wear and fray. Again, we deeply regret that this item was perceived negatively and we have removed it immediately from our website to avoid further upset."

Misuse of Terms
The company also used terms very loosely, such as "Navajo" to describe products such as underpants. The Navajo Nation sued Urban Outfitters for violating trademark use, and conflicts with the Indian Arts and Crafts Act, which makes it illegal to sell arts or crafts in a way to falsely suggest they're made by American Indians when they're not."

Hayne's Beliefs
Then there are products that the company discontinued because it conflicted with Hayne's beliefs. When same-sex marriage was made legal in the state of California in June of 2008, a shirt sold at Urban Outfitters, made in December of 2008 with the words, "I Support Same Sex Marriage" was pulled from the shelves, after only being on sale for a week.

And Hayne donates money to conservative causes. It was recorded that he donated $14,150 to Rick Santorum, a very conservative republican, in the '90's, and supports him to his day.

Profits
Although there is no direct correlation between these controversies coming to surface and Urban Outfitters profits recently declining, there's definitely awareness creating customers to question the company's authenticity.

There have been boycotts towards controversial products, but no recorded prominent boycotts against the whole store. It would be your personal preference to choose to stop shopping at Urban Outfitters or not. I know it's hard, even for me personally, to avoid shopping there because their products are very appealing when it's not questionable.

1. If you do decide not to shop at Urban Outfitters, consider second-hand shops where you can get that "hipster look" at a cheap price, D.I.Y. your own distressed clothes, or for artwork, Urban Outfitters buys some prints from Society6, but you can buy them directly from the website and save the middleman cost.

2. If you decide to still shop at Urban Outfitters, there's no shame or judgement in that. They've got a great selection of clothes, and sometimes you can find great clothes for a steal in their sale section.