A small Canadian clothing company is calling out retail giant Forever 21 for what it says are "blatant copies" of its sweater designs.
The British Columbia-based Granted Clothing company claims that Forever 21 stole two of its creations, without permission or credit.
"I’m pretty sure they got the design from us" says Granted co-owner Brian Hirano. “It looks very similar — not only the design but right down to the colors that they used.”
A family shop established in 1978, Granted produces hand-knit wool garments sold in boutiques in the US, Canada, Japan and South Korea; sweaters sell in the $200 to $350 USD range.
Forever 21's acrylic version of the whale sweater is priced at $39.90. It has sold out.
“We are planning to take legal action,” says Hirano. “We have enough proof at the moment that these are our original designs, so we’re pretty confident in our case.”
Granted has received some big-name support on social media for its claims against Forever 21.
Comedian Wyatt Cenac posted a photo wearing a Granted sweater, matching it with Forever 21's image of a male model wearing the similar style.
According to a 2011 Jezebel article, Forever 21 has been sued more than 50 times for copying designs from other fashion labels.
Forever 21 did not respond to our request for comment.
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