NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – Hatmakers continue to cut ties with a Nashville hat store following a controversial post on Instagram.
On Friday, the owner of hatWRKS hat shop on 8th Ave South in Nashville posted a photo to Instagram with a yellow patch resembling the Star of David along with the words “not vaccinated”.
The post described the patches as “great” with a “strong adhesive back” and that they would be making hats soon.
The post was later deleted from the account after several people commented saying it was offensive. The shop then posted again questioning why people were outraged by the earlier post, and not with the “tyranny the world is experiencing” today.
There was another post after that making statements regarding how people must “show their papers” in order to return to school, keep a job or enter a private business. It also mentioned fighting back to not relive history.
The owner of the company did post an apology to Instagram Saturday. The post included the following message, “In NO WAY did I intend to trivialize the Star of David or disrespect what happened to millions of people. That is not who I am & what I stand for. My intent was not to exploit or make a profit. My hope was to share my genuine concern & fear, and to do all that I can to make sure that nothing like that ever happens again. I sincerely apologize for any insensitivity.”
Well-known hat-making companies started to react to the chain of posts on social media.
Stetson is a company which sells hats, boots, western apparel, eyewear, and fragrance. They made a public comment about the incident on Twitter. In a follow up tweet Saturday, Stetson made the announcement they and their distribution partners will be ending the sale of all Stetson products with the store.
Goorin Bros., a global hat brand Since 1895, also responded on social media first stating they were looking into the situation internally. In an update, they tweeted they were ending distribution with hatWRKS, effective immediately.
In addition, Bailey Hats has ended their relationship with hatWRKS. In a Facebook post, company officials said they gave the owner of the store a chance to change. However, due to additional posts on the owner’s feed and refusal to remove past posts, they do not believe her apology is sincere.
They’re immediately ending their relationship with the store and released the following statement, “The use of the Star of David by our customer as a statement against vaccination was not just insensitive, but disrespectful and wrong.”