Zara pulls ‘copycat’ socks from its stores
Laduma buoyed by fan support in row over his Maxhosa brand
PORT Elizabeth fashion designer Laduma Ngxokolo has received an outpouring of support from fans on social media after international clothing brand Zara allegedly copied his sock designs.
Zara has since launched an internal investigation into copyright infringement allegations levelled against it by Ngxokolo, who runs Maxhosa by Laduma, over his signature Xhosa-inspired sock collection.
Over the past few days there has been outrage on social media after fans noticed similarities between Zara's collection and Maxhosa’s world-renowned range.
The clothing giant has been lambasted for allegedly “stealing” other people’s ideas for profit.
Zara has removed the Maxhosalike socks from all its online platforms as well as stores.
Ngxokolo said his lawyers had consulted with Zara’s legal representatives on the matter.
In a Facebook post he wrote: “I’ve had a few copyright infringement cases in the past‚ and won majority of them‚ but Zara took this one to great extremes.”
Ngxokolo told The Herald he was unable to disclose the cases as confidentiality agreements had been signed. On Zara, he said he had felt cheated.
“But now I feel very honoured that we have the voices of the people behind us, especially because Zara is such a huge corporation.”
A statement released by Zara’s holding company, Inditex, said it viewed the allegations seriously. The clothing retailer has more than 2 200 stores in 93 countries.
Amancio Ortega, founder of Inditex SA, has a net worth of $66.6-billion (R831-billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
“Inditex, the parent company of Zara, has the utmost respect for individual creativity and takes all claims concerning third party intellectual property rights very seriously,” the statement said.
“The process to immediately remove this item both from stores and online was activated at the moment this situation was brought to our attention.”
Laduma said he was disappointed by Zara's actions and planned to return every item of clothing he had bought from the store.
“Regardless of the outcome, my family and I will be returning every piece we bought from them.”
“They have already sold a lot of merchandise. In fact, one of our partners was about to buy the socks but called us to check if we had collaborated on this venture.
“We want them to revoke all merchandise from all their stores. They must issue a public apology and compensate us for any damages to our brand that we may have incurred during this time.”
I’ve had a few cases in the past but Zara took this one to extremes