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Did Urban Outfitters Rip Off Black Flag-Inspired Four Loko Shirt?
By
Ben Yakas
Published Jul 30, 2011
Modified Jul 30, 2011
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Jul 30, 2011
Modified Jul 30, 2011
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Over the last two years, Skull Bank purveyor Urban Outfitters has been accused by several jewelry designers of ripping off their designs. The company defended themselves—it can't feel too good to be scolded by Miley Cyrus, after all—but now, a reader is alleging that the company ripped off his Black Flag-inspired Four Loko t-shirt!
Reader Brien K. told us that he printed and sold his design online in October last fall: "Takeoffs on the BF/"four bars" logo are nothing new, but this particular take on the bars had been printed on shirts last year by me." He said that there were "only about 100 printed and were sold through a few obscure blogs & message boards" (you can see one example here), but as you can see above, the designs are pretty similar—although Urban Outfitters "didn't even use the correct font!"
You can see Urban Outfitters design here. Brien tells us he's "not looking for money or any notoriety...I'm sure that the design itself borders on copyright infringement, but I wanted to point out that they continue to rip people off." He also points out that Urban Outfitters is a bit late to cash-in on the Four Loko party: "Not to mention that the "real" Loko is long gone from store shelves and who still drinks that shit anyway?"
We are currently trying to contact Urban Outfitters for comment.
Tagged
black flag
four loko
rip off
shirts
urban outfitters
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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