Target Cancels Hunter Tall Boots Production

Target has made a formal announcement about their ill conceived plan to sell Hunter boots at Target.  The plan to sell and manufacture quality Hunter boots at under $50 US has been officially cancelled.   The announcement comes after reports from consumers, my readers and Target employees (via an anonymous community site) that the boots were defective and had a strong smell of glue.

According to a memo from Mark Tritton, Chief Merchandising Officer and Executive Vice President, Target, “After thorough evaluation, we’ve decided not to make this item available. We’re very sorry, but the production simply didn’t meet our standards, Hunter’s standards, or the standards we want guests to have when they shop at Target. We are working with a third party to recycle the boots.”

A lone pair of Hunter x Target men’s short boots at my local Target store.

Shoppers who did find Hunter for Target boots on launch day, were unable to purchase the boots as the were recalled at the cash register.   This debacle has angered shoppers–this is beyond the Target website crashes, the sell-outs of previous collaborations and the shopper hoarding of designer collaborations and the reselling on eBay at inflated prices.  To hype a product like Hunter boots with a mass commercial advertising campaign and then simply deliver a big fat nothing on the day shoppers went to the store on launch day is an epic fail.  I wonder how excited consumers will be about the next hyped Target design collaboration.

Crooked labels and excess glue were a few of the problems with Hunter x Target Boots reported by Twitter users like @Hey_Tall_Girl

As Twitter user Hey Tall Girl said,  “I cannot believe @HunterBoots allowed @Target to send these out. Men’s AND women’s are screwed up! #HunterxTarget #somuchglue #crookedlabel”  Other shoppers noted that the defective Hunter boots at Target were already stained at the time of sale.

Stains on Hunter x Target rain boots were one of the problems reported by shoppers who bought the boots.

Hopefully, there’s a lesson learned here by Target about the quality of their collaborations.  Maybe it’s time to put the marketing and advertising budget into quality assurance and better production?

P.S.: Disappointed shoppers can still get discounted Hunter boots at Nordstrom Rack.