Anti rubber piracy sites are raising their flags and begun battling the onslaught of Rubber Pirates, who roams freely on the internet. Especially active on eBay, the Rubber Pirates sells cheap copies of original designer latex.
The Knockoff Knockdown blog by Kink Engineering, comparing designer’s original work to cheap knock-offs of the designs stolen by others for a quick buck. Readers can submit their own photos of stolen latex designs.
The NY RubberBall’s piracy page tells you about why the pirates do what they do, what to look for and how to spot fraudulent sites, so you avoid being ripped off!
Illustration by ArrakisArt.
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What is the worst with stolen designs, latex they’re made from lives max 4 years. Meanwhille not only chinese but european companies uses stolen designs and mentioned material to make garments and asking sick prices for it. Sou you pay maybe 40 – 80 eur less for suit and it will deteriorate very soon. Some of my experiences and advices how to spot lame latex sheets are posted here: http://www.ladyarrakis.com/2010/09/28/rubber-rants-chinese-latex-fail-2010-09-28/
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it’s not just china, you know – it happens over here, too. i mean look at westward bound – they’ve been thieving people’s designs for years! China i can understand, to some degree – i don’t agree with it, but when the entire culture has little notion of copyright, and has an economy predicated on manufacturing cheap products for the west, i can see the ideological inception point. That’s where it’s down to the savvy consumer to understand that you need to support creativity, and buy original materials.
It’s unfortunate, and needs to be counteracted by cognisant consuming (kudos to the website for helping educate people!). But, that said, It’s the copying & undercutting in the west that i find the most reprehensible.
Thanks!
A Hong Kong based wholesale, drop shipping, buy direct site called Milanoo has copied Libidex images/designs,they also copy huge amounts of Cosplay sites and the complaints are many relating to poor goods and slow delivery. To counter this they pay PR companies to make press releases and claim that the bad publicity has increased sales !
This is a complex problem. It’s quite hard to define what is unique and copying is rather common in the clothing industry to begin with.
As I have suggested elsewhere, a better approach is for quality reliable makers to form an association and have a “seal” of approval and a code of conduct and standards. Buying from these makers will support non copiers, who make quality products and this will become a kind of “status” symbol that you own the real deal. LDA – latex dealers association or something like that.
Knock offs are not going away and this won’t make a dent.
We could call it RDA, but James Cameron might come after us thinking we’re trying to corner the market on Unobtainium. :)
In my opinion, I have given up looking at the rip offs of my designs from China, it just upset me and after looking into it I am helpless to do anything about it.
As for Westward Bound, I think they rip off other designers work and so i feel irritated when i see it, Its a real shame they have some gorgeous models modelling their new Atsuko Kudo rip-off collection.