Old Navy T-Shirt Criticized for Chicago Map Discrepancies

One woman called it the "most inaccurate Chicago neighborhood map ever"

An Old Navy T-shirt depicting a map of Chicago's neighborhoods is drawing ire on social media for what some call a few inaccuracies.

The shirt, sold at the State Street store in Chicago, features a map under the words "Chicago USA." It situates O'Hare Airport in the far northwest corner and Edgewater far north, above Uptown, but things get a little murky from there.

People on Twitter point out a non-existent neighborhood called Polishvillage is drawn next to Lakeview, and just south of that, the West Side Austin neighborhood gets improperly positioned right next to Lincoln Park.

Multiple neighborhoods were skipped between Lincoln Park and Lawndale, some people complained, and the stockyards, also not a neighborhood, gets significant billing north of Englewood.

Rogers Park, Logan Square, Wrigleyville, the Gold Coast and Pilsen were among neighborhoods not included.

A spokeswoman for Gap Inc. said the shirt isn't meant to be a one-to-one map of the city.

"From time to time, Old Navy offers limited, local product designed for and sold at specific locations. The t-shirt depicting Chicago neighborhoods, sold only at our State Street store, is intended to be an artistic expression and not a direct representation of a Chicago-area map."

That wasn't obvious to everyone. Jennifer Haffner snapped a photo of the shirt and described it on Twitter as the "most inaccurate Chicago neighborhood map ever."


She wasn't alone. Others chimed in with replies complaining about neighborhood omissions and creations of neighborhoods that don't exist.

Others, however, said they didn't mind the discrepancies and said they might buy the shirt anyway.
 

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