Nike 'Boston Massacre' T-Shirt Pulled After Customer Outcry

In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, tee-shirts with the words "Boston Massacre" are being removed from shelves at all Nike outlets.

While the slogan itself was initially coined from the 1770 British attack on Boston civilians, this particular product became popular among New York Yankee fans.

The Yankees ended the seasons in 1978 and 2006 of the Boston Red Sox -- their biggest rival -- so to add another dimension to the rivalry for the fans, the sweeps during those two seasons became known as the 'Boston Massacres,' according to ABC News.

Boston and New York have been sports rivals for decades, most notably in professional baseball. With the recent tragedy unfolding at the Boston Marathon however, where 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev and 19-year-old Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev set explosives off near the end of the marathon, the shirts were seen as being distasteful.

Over 180 innocent people were injured and three deaths were reported so the timing of the Nike shirts -- although a negative slogan was never Nike's intention -- was poor. In addition to pulling the shirts from all of their outlets, Nike has also yanked the product from many on-line retailers according to ABC News.

A 2011 Nike add featuring South African sprint runner Oscar Pistorius along with the slogan "I am the bullet in the chamber" came under fire recently when Pistorius was charged with the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

As the New York Daily News reported back in February, Nike sports business consultant Marc Ganis thought the ad was inappropriate even before the alleged incident with Pistorius.

"It's a bad ad in general. After Columbine, we should have had greater sensitivity in these kinds of ads," Ganis told the Daily News. "That's not a political statement. I think even the NRA would agree it's not appropriate."

The ad featuring the bullet reference and Oscar Pistorius didn't look good following the murder of Reeva Steenkamp just like the "Boston Massacre" shirt does not look great for the company following the events at the 2013 Boston Marathon.

While Nike clearly never intended to insult or harm anyone in releasing the ad and shirts, they've done a commendable job in rectifying the problem.