The Great T-shirt Robbery
T-Bar, you are going straight to T-shirt Hell!
The FABNOB Family recently spotted a disgraceful tee rip-off by Melbourne retailer T-Bar.
The t-shirt in question is the immensely popular Mr Owl Tee by US label Deter...and the visual evidence against T-Bar is rather compelling...
Even worse, T-Bar submitted the lifted tee to the Fashion Journal to be featured in their 'Tee Time' section!
T-Bar is a serial copyright infringer. Their modus operandi seems to involve lifting popular designs from overseas labels such as Local Celebrity, printing them in Asia on inferior materials, and selling them through their Melbourne outlets to unsuspecting consumers.
Their lame-ass defence?
Whoops, we didn't know.
Yep, this how T-Bar Co-owner Andrea Vidal explained another blatant rip to Lifelounge readers...
"We get a lot of our designs from people like you - in other words, the average customer. As hard as we do try to check where their submissions come from, every so often, one will slip through unnoticed. Rest assured, we hate it when this happens too."
WHATEVER!
TRY A LITTLE HARDER!
T-Bar's conduct is unethical and unlawful, and SOMEBODY must take a stand.
Watch this space....
Update 1st Apri1 2009 - T-Bar has removed the ripped tees from sale. Their prompt handling of the matter has been appreciated.
Update 27 Feb 2010 - Another stolen t-shirt design of a Deter classic has been spotted - this time by the online fashion store ASOS. The similarities between the two t-shirts is plain to see...
Brad B on Mar 27, 2009:
Hello, if you are going to go through the trouble of opening up a clothing store...clearly you have to have an interest in fashion...NOT AN INTEREST IN STEALING OTHER PEOPLE'S IDEAS, DESIGNS IN ORDER TO MAKE MONEY!
I'd be disgusted to think I bought a tee from some place and then later realized I was wearing a stolen replica of someone's design who did not profit whatsoever from my purchase.