Relief Tiles at Urban Outfitters

Adorn With Texture. These two styles of decorative tiles caught our eye at Urban Outfiiters. Both the Relief Medallion Tile (above, left) and the Relief Bumps Tile inspired us to look for more textural tile in the future. While we wouldn't buy tile from Urban Outfitters for an actual tiling job, we love that their presence reminded us not to forget about textural tile...

These decorative tiles are $18 each and measure 7.5"L, 1"W, 7.5"H.

• TileVault

Comments (13)

Am I missing something? Are we not supposed to buy anything from Urban Outifitters?

My thought exactly gathering browse... Why shouldn't we use this tile?

I think they mean you wouldn't use the tile to, say, tile your kitchen, because they aren't meant for heavy-duty use, but that these are great just for hanging on the wall as art.

Is this the company whose owner gives money to Rebublicans, so we should not buy their stuff?

Um, maybe it's because they're $18 apiece and not from an actual tile store so you have no guarantee of their quality or uniformity? Politics aside, I can't see tiling my backsplash with UO tiles in general, at the very least shipping must be horrendous!

i think the tiles are decorative only-- probably not strong enough for an actual tile job. I do love that dotted one though. here's why some people abstain from the UO

from the wiki entry:
"The president of Urban Outfitters, Richard Hayne, became controversial in early 2004 when the company advertised t-shirts bearing the slogan "Voting is for Old People." During the media hubbub that followed, journalists revealed that Hayne had contributed over $10,000 to Republican Senator Rick Santorum."

Thanks for revealing RH donated to Rick Santorum's election efforts. I will cross UO off of my list of places to shop.

I say that over and over, but then I walk by and see something I want in the window,and I'm a little bit powerless. At least Santorum is out of office.

The company is owned by its shareholders, since it's a publicly traded company.

Hayne, who is chairman of the board and president of the Urban Outfitters parent company, and his wife certainly have contributed to Santorum and to Republican groups -- the number that comes up on OpenSecrets.org is about $13,500, spread over 10 years of elections, so we're not talking about a lot of money per two-year election cycle.

BUT -- Glen Senk, CEO of Urban Outfitters and president of the Anthropologie brand, donates entirely to Democratic causes. His total is lower, but he hasn't been doing it as long.

If you boycott Urban Outfitters because of the politics of one of its executives -- do you devote equal due diligence to every company you consider shopping from? If not, why not?