St Croix Accused of Cashing-In On Steve Jobs Death With Turtleneck Promotions?
Clothing label St. Croix is being accused of falsely claiming former Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs wore its turtlenecks.
The company was pressed Tuesday after it was exposed that Jobs cultivated his trademark look with apparel from Japanese designer Issey Miyake, a longtime friend.
St. Croix avers that Steve Jobs was a "great innovator and fan." Just hours after Jobs' death the company put out style 1990, a classic black sweater priced at $175.
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St. Croix's website put up a special "In memory of Steve Jobs" page along with a "buy now" button attached to a photo of the tech revolutionary. The site also reported it would donate $20 towards cancer research for every 1990 style sweater sold.
The style quickly went out of stock and the company reveled in an almost 100 percent increase in sales in the days following Jobs' death.
The founder of Knitchkraft (producer of St. Croix), Bernhard Brenner, said in an interview after Jobs' death, that Jobs would purchase 12 turtlenecks each year. Brenner also said Jobs would make personal calls to the company expressing his satisfaction with the shirt.
Representatives for St. Croix are saying that this is the first time hearing that Jobs' sweater is not made by them.
St. Croix spokesman Bruce Amster said he didn't know Jobs' looks was the responsibility of Miyake and the company's ties to Jobs was based upon "consistent feedback" that the sweater was by St. Croix.
In a biography of Jobs written by Walter Issacson, it is revealed that the sweater is the product of a design friendship.
Quoting a conversation with Jobs, the biographer writes: "So I asked Issey to make me some of his black turtlenecks that I liked, and he made me like a hundred of them."
St. Croix now appears to have taken down any mention of Steve Jobs from its site, according to a Daily Mail report.
Jobs passed away on Oct. 5 and was the genius behind Apple's revolutionary products.
