Reebok Changes Ireland Shirt After Fan, Coach Backlash
The latest (and most offensive) in a long line of Reebok screw-ups concerning their new UFC apparel, Irish fans everywhere and Conor McGregor’s longtime coach at Dublin’s Straight Blast Gym (SBG), John Kavanagh, lashed out at the athletic company earlier today (Wed., October 21, 2015) concerning their all-new Ireland shirt depicting a map of the entire country.
The tagline read, “Show your territorial alliance,” but there was only one major problem: Northern Ireland was left completely out, removing an obviously huge portion of any potential territorial alliances. Kavanagh was understandably miffed an immediately took to Twitter to voice his disapproval of the shirt’s foolish omission and threatened to leave Reebok if it was not changed by day’s end:
only seeing this now. its about the dumbest idea i’ve ever seen. working on it. pic.twitter.com/3FiCA1gj8y
— Coach Kavanagh (@John_Kavanagh) October 21, 2015
An incredibly insensitive stupid divisive idea. Its removed by the end of the day or SBG is gone. I expect a sincere apology to Irish fans.
— Coach Kavanagh (@John_Kavanagh) October 21, 2015
Not surprisingly, Reebok was quick to issue an apology, deeming the screw-up a “design” flaw that had since been fixed:
We sincerely apologise for the offence caused by the UFC Ireland t-shirt. This was a design error and has now been removed.
— Reebok UK (@ReebokUK) October 21, 2015
That resulted in Kavanagh issuing a final statement on the subject after several media outlets had seemingly called him, in which he explained his stance on the subject and why he was angered at Northern Ireland being left off, with much of his focus fixed on the “territorial alliance” line:
No need for any more papers to call. This is my final comment on the situation. Time to get focused on #UFCDublin ? pic.twitter.com/FWjmcSUFdO
— Coach Kavanagh (@John_Kavanagh) October 21, 2015
Kavanagh’s displeasure came on the exact same week that SBG was unveiled as an official Reebok-sponsored gym. The look is certainly not a good one for Reebok’s continued delve into MMA, as they’ve already been met with an insane amount of criticism and backlash since debuting the kits this July.
Fans are citing their agonizingly low fighter pay as a huge problem in the sport, and it’s difficult to deny their accusations when the company continues to roll out mistake-laden clothes one after another that simply bearing clear mistakes that should have made it anywhere near the production phase.
Will better days be on the horizon for Reebok?
