It may well be a symbol of hope and unity, but Next's rainbow-themed children's shoe range has created anything but.
Customers have called out the retailer for the way it has divided its new range into girls and boys.
Sharing photos of 'Girls Next Rainbow striped wellies' and 'Boys Next navy rainbow dinosaur' shoes', Fionna O'Leary tweeted: "Just wondering @nextofficial what the difference is between a boys rainbow and a girls?"
Others jumped in to add their own criticism, including @MrsCatherine1, who said: "Those spiny rainbow dino shoes are so cool! My daughter would love them @nextofficial. Are they available in the ‘girls’ section too? Or better yet, can we just do away with these tired, pointless prescriptions, divisions and gender labels and #letclothesbeclothes? Please?"
While @miabubble added: "My daughter has those trainers and my son those wellies! Didn’t even clock that they were labelled as for girls or boys. So ridiculous!"
After being tagged in the tweets, the Let Clothes Be Clothes group, a campaign to end gender stereotyping in the design and marketing of childrenswear, retweeted the complaints.
The group's Francesca Mallen told the M.E.N's Manchester Family : "Rainbow motifs are a common design in clothes and accessories sold to girls, whereas boys are often told to accept dark, dull colours.
"There is also a hint of homophobia that boys are often denied the commonplace Pride emblem, but I feel Next have tried to navigate this obviously dicey territory with the biggest and scariest of all of nature's sore losers - the dinosaur.
"It would be truly wonderful to see a simple rainbow design marketed to boys, because you have to ask - why wouldn't some boys, like some girls, like lots of colour on their footwear?"
A spokesperson for Next stressed that the rainbow footwear is available for girls and boys, adding sales are healthier for younger boys compared with older ones.
She said: "The functionality of the website means that customers shop by separating out women, men, boys and girls, home etc. There isn't the functionality to combine these searches into children. However, if you search rainbow - both boys and girls products are listed."
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