Vans Employee Fired for Cursing At Customer Wearing Trump 'MAGA' Hat

A Vans store clerk has been fired for saying “F**k you” to a 14 year old boy who entered a store in Overland Park, Kansas wearing a red and white ‘Make America Great Again’ hat.

In a viral cell phone video showing part of the confrontation, the boys’ mother can be heard telling the employee, “He did nothing to you. What did you say to my son, to my 14 year old?”

“I’m sure he’s heard it before,” the employee responds.

“Where’s your manager? Let’s go,” the mother says, walking over to the checkout counter to confront the store manager.

The mother then told the manager that the employee demanded her son remove his hat. “Then he said F you to my son. My son said nothing to him, did nothing…” However, towards the end of the video, the unidentified person filming the incident on his cell phone can be heard saying, "I was hoping he would hit me." 

A 14 year old boy was told "F*CK YOU" by a Vans employee at Oak Park Mall in Kansas because he was wearing a MAGA hat.

What is @VANS_66 going to do about this?
Any comment from @PacSun? pic.twitter.com/JXUtw2L42x

— Austen Fletcher (@fleccas) February 18, 2019

Some Twitter users remarked that when the mother first related the incident to the manager, he appeared to be smirking:

If I was that manager, I would have fired him on the spot...but, judging by the SMIRK the manager seemed to have, I highly doubt anything was done

— Katie Thulin (@katiet121) February 18, 2019

Political commentator Ryan Fournier, the national chairman for Students For Trump, a nonprofit supporting the president’s 2020 re-election bid, who also posted the viral video on Twitter, dubbed the incident ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome.’  

The confrontation highlights a sensitive controversy over whether Trump paraphernalia is considered patriotic or racist, with some calling the baseball caps modern-day symbols of the KKK. One former retail worker acknowledges that while employees are entitled to their own opinion, expressing them while on the job rightly subjects them to disciplinary action or termination.

Retail employees are allowed to have personal opinions while working, but if they express them on the job, they're liable to be disciplined, fired, whatever. I had to bite my tongue many times during my retail days to keep my job. It is what it is.

— Lynn McEachern (@Lynnie33) February 19, 2019

Most of the reactions from the Twitterverse side with the boy, claiming the employee was out of line - with a few exceptions:

If you wear something that represents negativity and hate you will receive negativity and hate. Freedom of speech goes both ways

— MΛYΛ (@thatwimpydeer) February 18, 2019

Vans confirmed that it has since fired the employee. “Our focus is to provide the best customer service experience. We did let this employee go; he is no longer with our company,” a Vans Corporate employee told The Daily Caller, which first reported the story. “The actions and comments from the employee at the Oak Park location is in contrast with our values and beliefs.”

Some takeaways from the incident:

1. While employees should not condone disrespect, they should not start confrontations

It is well within a retail worker’s rights to defend himself against a belligerent customer, but not outside of a confrontational situation. Their purpose is to provide customer service and contribute towards a hospital shopping environment, not express their opinions about the customer.

2. Brands should take a firm stance when such spectacles become public

Vans’ prompt firing of the employee shows that it stood with the customer, recognizing that the employee crossed a line by confronting a boy who didn’t pose any threat to him. Conversely, when Chipotle fired a manager for refusing to serve a group of young black men who allegedly liked to dine and dash, the fast casual Mexican grill later discovered that the leader of the group was, indeed, a repeat dine-and-dash offender, and promptly rehired the manager to show its solidarity for an employee who turned out not to be in the wrong.

3. Before reacting to divisive issues, consider your brand’s identity 

Many of today’s brands express political ideologies, if only by implication, with some even taking a stance on divisive topics. In fact, sixty-four percent of consumers will make a purchasing decision based on a brand’s social or political position, according to a 2018 Edelman Earned Brand Study. Vans has a more than 50 year legacy as a skateboarding company turned leading action sports brand, with a motto of living “Off the Wall.”

Its support for “embracing creative self expression” and “youth culture connectivity” suggest its audience - and therefore, employee base - is likely young and liberal, and unlikely to sympathize with wearers of MAGA hats. Consequently, even though the manager was right to fire the employee for his combative behavior, some Twitter users have pointed out that Trump supporters and the Vans brand don’t mix well.

Vans and maga hats don’t go together

“Maga“ is the opposite of Vans’ entire brand ethos

— Alejandro (@JandroEmilio) February 20, 2019

The controversy of Pepsi’s ad campaign featuring supermodel Kendall Jenner and its supposed mockery of the Black Lives Matter movement shows that decidedly liberal brands need to exercise care or risk offending their customer base.

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