A German clothing company, selling a global warming awareness T-shirt, received so much backlash over the shirt's design that the company pulled the article of clothing from its website.

What are the details?

The site, an online-based store called Zalando, was selling a T-shirt to raise awareness for the cause of preventing global warming and climate change.

The shirt featured a black hand reaching for help out from a pool of water. The shirt was designed to depict a person drowning in rising sea waters due to the effects of global warming and climate change and was created by design company Wood Wood.

Social media users, however, believed that the shirt was offensive, because they believed it appeared to be a drowning migrant, according to the Daily Mail.

According to the outlet, one social media user wrote, "The message has to be something else, right? I really hope it does, but what?"

Another added, "Next, the picture of the dead kid on the beach as a cool pop art print or something. How disgusting and misanthropic can you actually be?"

What else?



A spokesperson for the retailer told the Daily Mail that they did not intend to cause any offense with the shirt.

"We took the T-shirt off our platform as we are aware the image is vulnerable to different interpretations," the spokesperson said. "We apologize for any unintentional offense caused."

The spokesperson added, "At Zalando, we offer our customers the greatest possible variety of products. We respect the artistic freedom of brands and manufacturers. For products offered on our platform, we want to ensure the careful and ethical handing of people, the environment, and animals."

"All suppliers, factories, and business partners must agree to our Code of Conduct," the statement continued. "This is based on the principals of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labor Organization. As a European company, it is important for us to be mindful of discrimination and support diversity and internationality."

Morten Meldgaard, who is a marketing & PR manager for Wood Wood, said that the design on the T-shirt has nothing to do with migrants or refugees.

"Although we have the greatest of sympathy for the desperate situations of refugees, the print on the Wood Wood 'Hand' T-shirt is not related to the current crisis," Meldgaard explained. "The motive can, however, be seen as a comment to global warming and the acceleration in sea level rise."

At the time of this writing, the T-shirt does not appear to be for sale on Wood Wood's home site.