An Australian boutique designer has accused Cotton On of copying its trucker caps. Photo / news.com.au
An Australian boutique designer has accused Cotton On of copying its trucker caps. Photo / news.com.au
They say imitation is the highest form of flattery, but for Sydney mum Jayni Assirati it's been a kick in the guts.
After spending two years building her kidswear brand, the boutique designer says she was shocked to see Australian retail behemoth Cotton On advertising a range of what she claims are strikingly similar wares to her own.
Assirati alleges her trademark personalised trucker caps and satchels, which carry the letters of the alphabet, appeared to have inspired the latest batch of products being promoted on the Cotton on Kids Facebook page.
"It was my customers that pointed it out to me," she told news.com.au, adding: "I was disappointed to see a range so similar to mine. We've worked really hard to build strong, consistent brand image ... I built my business in the basement of my house in the wee hours of morning in between breast feeding my babies. I don't have a big design house, it's just me."
When she reached out to Cotton On, Assirati received an email stating that Cotton On Kids had "investigated this matter and confirms that our ethical design process has been followed correctly".
But she remained sceptical, saying she was frustrated to see the trucker caps being mass produced and sold more cheaply by an organisation with a much larger reach and production capacity than her little business.
"They haven't heard of me?" Assirati said.
"When you're researching and launching something so niche as personalised trucker hats, you're researching who else is selling it. All it takes is one Google search."
She pointed to screenshots showing how shoppers had tagged both Bille the Kid and Cotton On in pictures of their children wearing items by both brands.
Billie the Kid's loyal customers voiced their support on Facebook, commenting on Cotton On's promotional post with the hashtags #billiethekid and #theoriginal.
"I've never supported Cotton On for this reason," Mai Hemmings wrote. "I only buy the licensed tees but that's it."
Another shopper called Cotton On's approach "disgusting", vowing to stop buying from the retailer.
"There is no way I would ever buy one of these," Liza Dessent wrote.
Assirati said she was concerned that Cotton On's cheaper pricing on her signature item, the cap, could harm her business.
Cotton On's trucker cap retail for $19.95 each, while Billie the Kid caps are $26. The bags are $29.95 at Cotton On and $29 at Billie the Kids.
What really hurt, she said, was seeing the comments on the Cotton On Facebook page praising the "brilliant idea" for the personalised hats.
She said the company engaged in paid collaborations with brands like Disney and should do the same with smaller designers.
It is not the first time Cotton On has been accused of ripping of smaller designers.
Elektra Printz, the New York-based creator of the Lettuce Turnip The Beet T-shirts, sued the retailer in Victoria and the United States over its range of tank tops bearing the trademarked slogan. It is understood that Cotton On reached a confidential settlement with the designer.
And fellow Australian designer Fliss Dodd has told news.com.au she was devastated to return home after 18 months in Bali to find a "copy" of her Bandit Bat doll being sold at Cotton On for a fraction of the price.
"It's a really horrible thing ... So many of us put our hearts and souls into this," Dodd said at the time.
Cotton On previously settled a lawsuit with a designer who accused the company of copying its trademarked phrase "Quit Your Job, Buy A Ticket, Get A Tan, Fall in Love, Never Return".
Billie the Kid started selling its trucker caps in 2015 and now has an online store. Photo / Facebook
And fashion brand Elwood successfully sued the company for knocking off one of its T-shirt designs back in 2008, when staff admitted in court to having been instructed to come up with products that mimicked the "look and feel" of the original shirts.
Cotton On said in its email to Assirati, seen by news.com.au, that its design team had "provided all of their creation history relating to the product and have confirmed that they had not seen your range prior to your post".
"The font and stylization of their letter is very different to the letters in your range as it is to all of the other options in the market applying the same trend," the email said.
The company said in a statement to news.com.au that it "did not seek inspiration from Billie the Kid in the creation of the trucker cap and backpack range".
"Cotton On Kids has a well-established trucker cap and backpack range that has been in place for a number of years," the statement said.
"We have been offering our customers personalised products for months and following customer feedback the decision was made to extend this offering to accessories including the trucker cap and backpack range.
"The brand has applied its own independently designed letters to this range in line with the global trend of personalisation and the widespread trend in the market of letters on product."
Cotton On said its dedicated design and product development teams were always looking at how to apply "new and emerging trends in a way that is relevant to our customer and the aesthetic of our brands".
"We work to high ethical standards and practices in the design and production of our lines and have strong education and training programs for our people on respecting boundaries of inspiration," it said.
"The Group has zero tolerance for the blatant copying of designers and takes these matters seriously. We respect the work of individual designers and in fact, have partnered with smaller designers and support the career development of up and coming designers through tertiary partnerships."
The company declined to reveal how many lawsuits it had settled with other fashion brands in the past 12 months.
