Sep 16, 2014 03:54 PM EDT By J Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

Clothing retailer Urban Outfitters has apologized for selling a sweatshirt that featured tattered edges with the logo of Kent State University and what looked like blood stains.

Many people believed the $129 vintage sweatshirt referenced the 1970 "Kent State Massacre" that left four people dead and nine others wounded. Some people on social media assumed that the shirt belonged to someone who was near the victims in 1970, Inside Higher Ed reported.

"We take great offense to a company using our pain for their publicity and profit," Kent State University said in a prepared statement. "This item is beyond poor taste and trivializes a loss of life that still hurts Kent State community today."

As outrage spread, Urban Outfitters released its own statement regarding the product Monday morning.

"Urban Outfitters sincerely apologizes for any offense our Vintage Kent State Sweatshirt may have caused," the clothing retailer said in a statement. "It was never our intention to allude to the tragic events that took place at Kent State in 1970 and we are extremely saddened that this item was perceived as such."

They claimed that the sweatshirt "was purchased as part of our sun-faded vintage collection. There is no blood on this shirt nor has this item been altered in any way. The red stains are discoloration from the original shade of the shirt and the holes are from natural wear and fray."

Dean Kahler, 64, who was paralyzed in the 1970 shootings, spoke out against the multinational clothing corporation.

"This shows the continued lowbrow of Wall Street, and Urban Outfitters continues to perpetuate a low standard of ethics," Kahler told Fox News.

Emily Vincent, the school's director of media relations, has invited the leaders of the company as well as anyone who invested in the controversial item to tour their May 4 Visitors Center, which opened two years ago, to "gain perspective on what happened 44 years ago and apply its meaning to the future."

"[It] was a watershed moment for the country and especially the Kent State family," Kent State University officials said. "We lost four students that day while nine others were wounded and countless others were changed forever."

The shirt has since been taken off Urban Outfitter's website.

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