Fashion Knockoffs

Fashion and style are big bucks – no doubt about it. Small companies have always built clothes that had more or less in common with those of big fashion designers. If these smaller companies wouldn’t be there, we’d be stuck buying expensive Burberry scarves, trench-coats and Ray-Ban aviators.

But what happens when BIG brands imitate each-other? Law suits, that’s what.

The battle between Gucci and Guess is quite old. it started in 2009, when Gucci accused Guess of copying one of their sneakers model.

Here’s how the original Gucci sneaker looked like:

As you can see, the sneakers made by Guess look almost the same:

The target audience for the two Gs are pretty different. While Gucci targets older men with deeper pockets, Guess is looking towards younger people (who typically have less money).

Still, I would have expected more from Guess, a brand with enough funds to design its own sneakers.

So the trial has finally started. Gucci is accusing Guess of imitating the aforementioned sneakers and a few other things. It’s going to be very interesting to see what happens.

Personally I think Gucci is right. What’s your opinion?