. for free people of slave classes from the americas see free people of color . free people type subsidiary industry retail founded 1984 1984 mm founder dick hayne products apparel accessories shoes intimates swimwear services apparel & fashion parent urban outfitters website www.freepeople.com free people is an american bohemian apparel and lifestyle retail company that sells women s clothing accessories shoes intimates and swimwear . headquartered in philadelphia pennsylvania free people is a part of urban outfitters inc. . today free people sells their line in 1 400 specialty stores worldwide . the brand is distributed globally via direct channels including the free people global site and free people uk site as well as specialty clothing boutiques top department stores and the brand s free standing retail locations in the u.s. and canada . 1 history edit in the early 1970s dick hayne opened a store in philadelphia pennsylvania with his first wife judy wicks and named it free people . his store attracted the young people who lived and shopped in the area . when his store s popularity grew he opened a second store and he changed its name from free people to urban outfitters . urban outfitters business began to grow rapidly . dick s wife meg oversaw the development of urban outfitters private label division which supported product exclusive to urban outfitters . this proved to be quite successful so in 1984 they decided to create a wholesale line which they ultimately named free people . citation needed in the fall of 2002 the first free people boutique opened in paramus new jersey . since its founding the company has opened over 81 boutiques in the us and 2 in canada . free people developed an app which allows users to shop and to upload their own looks and pictures wearing free people clothing and products . along with serving as urbn s chief creative officer margaret hayne is also currently chief executive of free people . 2 criticisms edit in april 2016 the company was criticized for the advertisements of their new clothing line directed towards music festival attendees . the advertisements promoted native american styled clothing on a caucasian model which gardened much negative attention on social media websites . 3 4 5 6 references edit official site lauren sherman will anthropologie win where traditional department stores have failed october 11 2016 free people festival line slammed for cultural appropriation . stuff.co.nz . retrieved 12 april 2016 . rheana murray free people accused of appropriating native american culture with festival line today april 11 2016 refinery29 free people s festival shop gets called out for cultural appropriation alexandra ilyashov april 8 2016 carly stern free people accused of disgusting cultural appropriation over its new native american inspired festival collection which is almost all modeled by a blonde white woman dailymail.co.uk 8 april 2016 v t e urban outfitters brands urban outfitters anthropologie free people bhldn people richard hayne retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title free people & oldid 744387000 categories retail companies of the united statescompanies based in philadelphiacompanies established in 1984hidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parametersall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from april 2016 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 14 october 2016 at 21 53 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view