Retailer Loses $80 Million and Shuts 21 Stores After Woke Marketing Backfires

When busi­ness­es put pol­i­tics over cus­tomers, the results can be bru­tal. That’s exact­ly what hap­pened to out­door retail­er KMD Brands, which just announced it will close 21 stores after report­ing a stag­ger­ing $82.9 mil­lion loss.

The down­fall? A mar­ket­ing stunt that replaced beloved surfer and shark-attack sur­vivor Bethany Hamil­ton with a bio­log­i­cal male iden­ti­fy­ing as a woman in women’s cam­paigns for its Rip Curl brand. Hi

From Hero to Activist Icon

Hamil­ton, who lost her arm in a shark attack and went on to inspire mil­lions, had been a sym­bol of courage and faith for young women. Instead of cel­e­brat­ing that sto­ry, Rip Curl piv­ot­ed to pro­mote Sasha Low­er­son, a trans­gen­der surfer, as part of its women’s line.

The move sparked imme­di­ate boy­cotts and back­lash from loy­al cus­tomers who felt betrayed.

The Finan­cial Fall­out

KMD took a $40 mil­lion write­down on its Oboz boot line. Sales across its brands, includ­ing Kath­man­du and Rip Curl, con­tin­ued to decline. Now, the com­pa­ny is shut­ter­ing more than twen­ty stores, prov­ing that alien­at­ing your base doesn’t just hurt feelings—it destroys prof­its.

The Big­ger Pic­ture

This isn’t the first time a cor­po­ra­tion has gone “woke” and paid the price. Just like Bud Light and Tar­get, Rip Curl’s deci­sion shows that con­sumers are push­ing back when com­pa­nies aban­don com­mon sense in favor of social activism.

In the end, replac­ing a woman who’s over­come incred­i­ble odds with a man pre­tend­ing to be one wasn’t just insulting—it was bad busi­ness.