Global fashion giant ‘cheats’ MaXhosa
Laduma forces ZARA to remove ‘copycat’ socks
Spanish retail giant ZARA has until today to remove from their shelves their sock range resembling MaXhosa By Laduma’s signature patterns.
This follows an uproar with accusations of copyright theft levelled against the upmarket store by MaXhosa.
Speaking to Sowetan yesterday, MaXhosa label owner Laduma Ngxokolo said he was disappointed by the store.
“It’s a turn-off. As a consumer I bought a few items from them before. I feel cheated by them and technically we are cheated” Ngxokolo said.
“Speaking as a consumer I will boycott them and return all the things that I have bought from them in the past.”
He added that ZARA had robbed him of an opportunity to make business as his brand is small but has started growing in other parts of the world, including UK and New York.
The MaXhosa brand gained massive traction in 2016 when American singer Beyoncé posted about its designs which were being showcased at the Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City.
Ngxokolo said he found out about his signature pattern lookalike socks from friends who visited ZARA in London and New York. His team, represented by intellectual property lawyers Shane Moore and Muhammad Patel from Moore Attorneys, wrote a letter of demand to the store asking them to remove the socks or face legal action.
In a statement released by the team, ZARA’s sock range resembles the Khanyisa
‘‘ It’s a turn-off. I feel cheated by them and technically we are cheated
Cardigan which MaXhosa launched in 2014 and is currently its best seller.
Ngxokolo said following the letter of demand sent to ZARA by South Africa’s legal team the socks were removed from their worldwide online store and from their Sandton store.
“One of the demands is that they remove [the socks] of which they have started, issue an apology and also compensate us for loss,” Ngxokolo said.
“It’s signs of guilt and signs of ignorance as well… yes people say that ZARA copies from other designs but they usually modify but this time they did not modify they just copied and pasted the whole thing.”
ZARA’s holding company, Inditex, said it viewed the allegations seriously. “As a preventive action, the process to immediately remove these items both from stores and online was activated at the moment this situation was brought to our attention.” –