Perhaps you haven’t heard, but Stephanie Koerner accused Urban Outfitters of stealing and outright plagiarizing her Etsy shop. It has long been known in the Etsy community that Urban Outfitters copies anyone and hides it under a cloak of occasionally wholesaling with some Etsy sellers.
Here is part of their response to the latest accusation, with my translations:
>We are not implying that Koerner stole her necklace idea from one of these other designers, we are simply stating the obvious—that the idea is not unique to Koerner and she can in no way claim to be its originator.
Translation: “We are not saying that she stole the idea too, but we are strongly hinting at it. At very least we don’t see any creativity or originality in her work, unlike ours.”
>Normally we would not respond publicly to Koerner’s allegations, but we believe the media response to her campaign is threatening to impact the dozens of independent designers we work with on a daily basis. For many of them, having their work sold at Urban Outfitters is a very positive turning point in their careers, and we will not allow their hard work and commitment, or ours, to be undermined by these false allegations.
Translation: “Normally we laugh internally at these poor schmucks, but this time she complained really loudly. This time it pissed us off a little bit, so we are publicly making fun of her. Also she is the one Etsy should be mad at — not us!”