Souls and Soles

It's been a while since we did a little compare and contrast. Today we'll look at TOMS shoes vs Skechers' brand BOBS. Since the picture I put together explains most of the details I won't touch on those, except to say the curly brown haired guy on the left is Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS; the curly haired dude on the right is, as far as I can tell, just some dude they found to put on the website for BOBS.  Perhaps the obviously profit-minded Skechers could adopt a new slogan: Soulless Shoemaker.

counterfeit intelligence

Tis the season to spot rip offs...this little ditty started when I saw the new Crate and Barrel sweater vase heavily inspired by independent designers. In my quest to find out who manufactured the one for Crate and Barrel I also found an original that seems to have heavily influenced renowned ripper-offer Mr. Foster.

Am I naive for thinking companies should be better than reducing themselves to cheap design knock offs? Yes. Will I stop talking about how they should be better than that? No.
This, people, is just another reason to buy from independent designers at craft fairs this season, or from sellers that work directly with the artists. Big box stores have no conscience regarding authentic design and artists' rights...that is, unless it's their own designs getting ripped off.