It probably seemed like a good guerrilla move at the time. Then the wheels fell off.
During New York’s Fashion Week in February, DKNY launched a sweepstakes dubbed “Explore Your City” by chaining bicycles painted bright orange with a small logo at various high-traffic areas around the city.
But the retailer didn’t figure on a contingent of Big Apple cyclists taking umbrage that the designer’s installations were piggybacking on what they consider to be serious business.
Manhattan streets are dotted with more than 40 “ghost bike” memorials — beat-up two-wheelers painted spectral white and chained near spots where bikers have been killed in collisions with cars and trucks. Hard-core cyclists see DKNY’s promo as a performance art protest against public indifference to their safety, and many complained that it was commercially trivializing their public objections.
Activists vandalized the DKNY bikes, even sawing them in half. On the last day of Fashion Week, several protesters rode orange bikes to Bryant Park, Fashion Week’s main locale, and staged a mock battle between a cardboard Mercedes — one of FW’s sponsors — and a leopard-clad fashion model.
Unsympathetic, the New York Police Department hauled away the orange bikes by the truckload, claiming they were illegally chained to signs, trees and other city property. (In contrast, the cops generally have left alone the “ghost bike” memorials.)
DKNY issued a statement saying the stunt was meant to promote biking, not its fashions, and adding that “We are very sorry if our well-intentioned ‘Explore Your City’ program offended anyone.”
At last report, some orange bikes not hauled off to police impound were still chained up — and being slowly cannibalized for parts.
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