Facing scrutiny on social media, Atmos has issued a public apology. Late yesterday, the boutique issued a statement from its founder, Hommyo Hidefumi, and its team stating it has “failed the Atmos NYC and Harlem community” and that it is “dedicated to righting the wrongs of the past.”
The statement reported in Foot Wear News comes after weeks of scrutiny for several allegations from former employees including unequal pay for its Black and Hispanic employees.
“Atmos Harlem owes its success to the support of the Black community. We believe Black Lives Matter.”
“After listening and learning from our employees and your feedback, it has become clear to us that we owe our community an apology,” the statement read. “Atmos Harlem owes its success to the support of the Black community. We believe Black Lives Matter.”
We acknowledge that Black and brown people have suffered inequality in the U.S. for generations. We play a part and have a responsibility to support BIPOC people and be actively anti-racist in the way we operate our business.”
“… It was wrong of me to not operate a store in NYC with the same care and attention I do with managing my stores in Tokyo, and not taking the time to understand the cultural differences.”
It continued, “The experiences described by employees and customers are not what I hoped to create when bringing Atmos to the U.S. 10 years ago. It was wrong of me to not operate a store in NYC with the same care and attention I do with managing my stores in Tokyo, and not taking the time to understand the cultural differences.”
“I acknowledge that the store team has suffered as a result. We are in conversations with past employees to start the journey of repairing those relationships and healing the past. I learned a lot in the past few weeks.”
Read the entire article here.
Photo credit: Hommyo Hidefumi.
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