50 Shades of Sears? Department store pulls men's bondage gear from website after customer complaints. . . but women's leather lingerie is still available
- Retailer has removed collars and harnesses for men, but women's corsets and skimpy costumes remain for sale
Sears has pulled bondage gear from its website after an image of a man wearing a leather harness was widely circulated online.
Some customers were shocked that the retail chain best known for auto parts and appliances featured erotic accessories on its Elegant Moments page.
But many of the raciest items for men - including the leather collar with chains ($17.59) and the 4 Piece Adjustable Harness ($55.99) - have been removed from the website. Others were disappearing at a rapid rate at press time.
Removed from site: Some items for men like the mesh leather shorts (left) and the 4-way harness (right) have been taken down
The items were being sold through Sears's marketplace, which allows online shoppers to order online from additional vendors.
The Marketplace has edited questionable items in the past: In 2012 the company took down a link to another Elegant moments lingerie set with a see-through pink mesh top.
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'The terms on our Marketplace prohibit images from displaying nudity and see-through clothing. Most often, we see third party sellers blocking out the nudity in the images,' a Sears spokesperson explained at the time.
'We perform ad-hoc content audits to remove inappropriate items and also take customer feedback and react very quickly.'
S&M at Sears: There are still plenty of leather lingerie options to choose from for women
Bondage gear: The retailer offered erotic accessories including harnesses, leather chains and collars
It remains unclear why some of the men's items that don't technically show nudity such as as the collars and leather and mesh shorts ($21.59) have been removed, while leather G-strings, corsets, and sexy costumes for women remain available.
Consumerist took offense at the 4-piece adjustable harness for men - but only because they believed that the pricing should be more competitive.
The experts pointed out that the harness that retailed for $55.99 on Sears's website was only $46.60 on Amazon.
The chain is known for its tagline 'Come see the softer side of Sears', and recently launched a campaign that emphasized fashion over function with taglines like 'I came in for a DieHard and found something drop dead.'
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