There’s one thing you shouldn’t do as a fashion brand and that’s piss off absolutely everyone for the sake of getting people to talk about your shit t-shirts. If that’s your marketing tactic then maybe you should reconsider the unethical tactics of your company. When Urban Outfitters aren’t belittling entire cultures or releasing distasteful jumpers promoting actual murder, they’re stealing designs from small time Etsy stores or copying work from talented artists without directly hiring them.
Urban Outfitters (anti-gay, Republican corporation) used my images as “inspiration” for their visual merchandising 😒 pic.twitter.com/KligRdz2Wd
— Signe Pierce (@sigggnasty) 22 June 2016
Artist and photographer Signe Pierce is the latest creative to be ripped off by the hip and trendy consumerist giant. Pierce’s kitsch 80s style photographs of neon interiors are genuinely fab but why couldn’t UO just hire her to recreate the works instead of just ripping her off by using way too similar visuals in their window displays? Well presumably it has something to do with not wanting to work for a monolithic homophobic douche of a company that exploits creatives and promotes eating disorders and racial stereotyping. Nobody in their right mind would knowingly want to work for these assholes unless they were desperate (trust me, I’ve been there).
Yo @UrbanOutfitters ~ where my royalty checks at? We see you. pic.twitter.com/GYUJKyhAEF — Signe Pierce (@sigggnasty) 22 June 2016
Unfortunately Pierce isn’t the only artist that has ever been ripped off by Urban Outfitters. Designer James Soares had his work stolen directly off his Society 6 page and used in the pattern of a skirt design by a third party company named Bambam. Tumblr user Glam-Trash had her artwork appropriated in similar circumstances without reimbursement . If you were to do a quick Google search you will come across endless accounts of small time self employed creatives having their work taken from them with no compensation.
Earlier this year, The Week staff published a master post of offending Urban Outfitters articles and it’s seriously awful. How a big time clothing retailer can get away with all this is absolutely beyond us. At first we presumed it was because they were hiring some top notch lawyers and sending victims fat wads of hush money but on second thoughts it’s probably because artists literally can’t afford to take these rich swindlers down.
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Shampoo for “suicidal” hair
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A tapestry that was eerily reminiscent of the holocaust
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Pill bottle shaped drinking paraphernalia
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Pro-booze shirts for kids
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“Punk as fuck” t-shirt with marijuana leaf #edgy
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Star of David t-shirt that looked too much like the badges that jews were made to wear during the holocaust
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Racially insensitive Navajo native american knockoffs
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Flat out stealing jewellery designer Stevie Koerner’s necklace design
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There was once an option to buy a t-shirt in either “White/Charcoal” or “Obama/Black”
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They once sold pro-gay marriage shirts but then weirdly retracted them from stores
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Pro-eating disorder tops with the phrase “eat less”
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A shirt of a Palestinian carrying an AK-47 with the word “Victimised”
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“Everybody Loves A Jewish Girl” shirt featuring money bags and dollar signs
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Paedophilic image of an underage model with her legs spread on the back of a motorcycle was used on a t-shirt
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Ghettopoly
What’s next? A t-shirt promoting young people to ‘Shag A Ginger’ or a line of sick beanies embroidered with Donald Trump’s pro Brexit tweet? Get a fucking clue Urban Outfitters.
