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Why Design Piracy Affects a Lot More People than Just the Designers
The ripple effect created by an alleged Urban Outfitters knockoff
Many of us would love to see one of our product designs for sale at a large retail chain. But when Aaron and Claire Van Holland saw their mirror selling at Urban Outfitters, they were less than thrilled. The reason: They never sold their design to Urban Outfitters!
Enter a caption (optional)The Van Hollands—the design duo behind the small L.A.-based brand M.F.E.O.—were "beyond disappointed to find a cheap knockoff of our Troika mirror on urbanoutfitters.com and in their storefronts," as they write. "The quality of Urban Outfitters' [knockoff] is an insult to our original Troika that we've been crafting and fine tuning since early 2013. We find it hard to believe that the design and dimensions (including the ledge for keepsakes) is a coincidence."
The pair are rightfully P.O.'d, and they've also taken the trouble to point out that design piracy affects a lot more than the designers. It's already got to be an awful feeling to see something you've worked on simply copied to profit others, but consider also the trickle-down effect this has on the other parties involved:
Enter a caption (optional)[The Troika is made from] sustainably harvested maple europly sourced from Anderson Plywood in Culver City, CA. Their staff is always very helpful and they carry a wide assortment of wood and finishes.
Enter a caption (optional)Our maple europly sheets are cut by Steve at Triumph Custom CNC and Laser Works, just down the street from our studio. Each piece is cut to size, the channel routed for the glass and then the edges are pre-sanded.
Enter a caption (optional)Our glass mirror is provided by a Armando's Glass in Hollywood, CA. This small, family owned shop has been in business for 40 years! Today, their son Luis now handles most of the heavy lifting, while his mom, Yolanda runs the shop.
Enter a caption (optional)When we first started producing Troikas, we were making our own boxes and foam corners for shipping. Eventually, we figured that our time was better spent making the Troika and not the packaging. We decided to invest in a large order of boxes and custom foam corners from Acorn Paper Products.
These are four local businesses that M.F.E.O patronizes. If the Van Hollands' sales are cannibalized by Urban Outfitters—whom they cannot hope to compete with in terms of reach and economies of scale—all five parties will suffer. And the Van Hollands are already feeling the effects, in a rather nasty way:
We recently put in the largest order from each of our local vendors because we were supposed to wholesale the maple europly Troika through another retailer. When we discovered the Urban Outfitters infringement, we notified our retailer in an effort to be forthright and transparent. They decided to postpone our contract and we're now sitting on 200+ Troikas waiting to be assembled and sold. If we can't continue to sell the Troika because of Urban Outfitters' knockoff, it not only impacts our business, but it affects each of our vendors as well.
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So wait I must be missing something. Someone is bummed because their revolutionary idea of having a mirror in a deep triangular frame was copied?
I have to assume that the market for a $145 sustainably produced, locally sourced mirror is VERY DIFFERENT from the market for a sub-$40 mirror made from what is most likely MDF covered with inexpensive veneer sold in a multi-hundred-location clothing/lifestyle store. While it is unfortunate that their big distribution deal fell through, that is completely at the hands of their distributor.
CNC seems like an expensive overkill for these parts. A decent table saw would knock these out in no time.
Next thing you know someone will steal my idea for a chest that is tall and has drawers in it for holding items like shirts and pants. With small drawers on the top and larger drawers towards the bottom. I have to come up with a catchy name though. Something like "clothing department" or "agency of clothing".
Rain - thanks so much for this. I found it sure insightful and have referenced you in my article here with Core 77's permission. Thanks again: http://www.thesteki.com/design_piracy_core_77/
Designers really need to stop worrying about 'piracy' and start designing more progressively. This is similar to when desktop publishing made every person with a pc and a printer a 'graphic designer'. The graphics world had to step up and do better. Those who typeset flyers were out of luck. If product designers can ascend, the profession will simply die.
Alternately, we could embrace the idea of building on the shoulders of giants, taking great ideas and bringing them up another notch. Put a note on the back/bottom of the piece openly crediting those who came before us, and move forward.
I get that there are people whose livelihoods are affected. Conversely, the UO piece is also manufactured by someone. When the UO mirror is discontinued and those people are displaced, will we also see articles about them?
Umm, no design patent?
couldn't patent something no inventive step its just a triangular mirror, would have design rights based on shape and dimension, but hard to enforce and protect against larger company. this is the problem with purely aesthetic design its hard to protect as the multi-million £ apple vs Samsung shape fight proves