Cool Science Products has been forced to take a large financial loss in Q3 largely due to a failed initiative which targeted girls with science-themed apparel.
For years, the company has made science-themed apparel mainly for the youth clothing market. But last year, after an initiative organized by girl power activist group ‘Super Grrls,’ the company agreed to re-tool their factories and produce products aimed at girls as well.
Cool Science CEO Martin McCartney:
“They wrote letters. There was a social media campaign. People even picketed outside. ‘We want science shirts for girls!’ ‘They need to be empowered!’ ‘Girls are not being catered to!’
It seemed like a solid strategy. We had been closing off half of the market by producing mainly colors and patterns of clothing that mostly boys and parents of boys purchased. So the new line included a lot of pink Einstein shirts, stuff that said “Girl Power,” “Girl Scientists Rock!” “Smart Girl,” that sort of thing. Because of the pressure we were receiving, we thought these things would surely be a sales winner.
But then we were boycotted for making girl shirts for girls and using pink because girls don’t want to be told they have to wear pink to be a girl. And they didn’t want the shirts to say anything specifically about girls because that’s pigeonholing. And they wanted regular colored shirts like we used to sell that had, say a blue or black shirt with Einstein or Edison or Tesla on them, because girls can wear anything boys can wear. They didn’t want to be told that they should like Marie Curie or Rosalind Franklin just because they were women. But we already were selling those other kinds of shirts, so I don’t even…”
The company sold exactly 7 of the girl science shirts. The rest went to Africa, where they now sing the praises of women scientists and the 4 time Super Bowl Champion Buffalo Bills.
Forehead palm slap. Deep sigh.