It was a regular Tuesday night when Canadian artist Justin Teodoro received an alarming message on Instagram.
“Is this legit?”
It was from one of his more than 48,000 followers on the social media platform, and attached was a screenshot of a T-shirt listed for sale on fast-fashion clothing brand Shein’s website.
Printed on that shirt was one of Teodoro’s original designs, featuring a drawing of Madonna surrounded by lyrics to the song “Hung Up.” The image of the T-shirt listing even featured Teodoro’s signature.
The next morning, on Aug. 6, Teodoro posted a screenshot of Shein’s T-shirt listing to his page. “Hey [Shein], you literally stole my artwork unbeknownst to me and are currently selling it on T-shirts on your site without any credit or mention to me as the artist, even though you carelessly left my signature on it,” he captioned his post. “I filed a complaint on your website, but who knows how long that will take to get to you. Me and my legal counsel would love to get in touch directly with you, Shein, to make sure you take this down.” Teodoro then urged the company to pay him for the sales they made off of the clothing piece and for “stealing” his artwork.
“I’ve dealt with this stuff before and it always sucks to see big corporations like Shein literally steal work from small, independent creatives, but this one does truly make me really angry. So my inner Norma Rae is coming out,” Teodoro added, asking if anyone knew a better way to contact the company.
At the time of writing, Shein has not replied directly to Teodoro’s social media posts. However, the T-shirt is no longer listed on its site. In a statement to Yahoo Canada, Shein noted it never aims to infringe on people’s intellectual property (IP). However, the platform essentially works as a marketplace, allowing third-party sellers to list their products to reach a global customer base.
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“Shein takes all claims of infringement seriously. It is never our intent to infringe anyone’s valid intellectual property, and it is not our business model to do so. All Shein vendors are required to comply with company policy and certify that their products do not infringe third-party IP.”
The company noted it also explained how it processes complaints from people who own IP: “When legitimate complaints are raised by valid IP rights holders, Shein promptly addresses the situation, and removes the product(s) from our site as a matter of caution while we investigate,” statement said. “If a violation is confirmed, Shein will take appropriate action against the vendor of said products.”
Shein added it is investing in “image recognition technology” to try and recognize cases of possible infringement. The brand also said its product review team.
In the past, Teodoro had seen his work for sale without his consent on other sites that allow independent users to sell content, such as Redbubble. He estimated it’s happened at least a dozen times and said it’s been taken down when he’s brought it to the site’s attention.
“I wanted to call it out quicker this time than I had before,’’ Teodoro explained, adding that he’s grateful many of his followers have reposted his pleas. “Seeing creatives’ work being exploited and taken advantage of, combined with AI, a lot of us are feeling more vulnerable now. I think it’s definitely hit a nerve and it should not be taken lightly.’’
Moreover, Teodoro noted, it’s frustrating to see that “Shein has not learned its lesson” after being accused of stealing other artists’ work as recently as both last year and the year before. Teodoro said Shein’s policies need to do better to support artists.
“It becomes very tiring because these things happen so fast, and I’m not even sure who’s operating [the site],” he said. “I have no professional relationship with Shein and after this, I don’t think I’d want to have one.”
While the shirts have now been removed from Shein’s site, Teodoro is still seeking answers. He shared he was never contacted by the company, so he doesn’t know how long the T-shirt was being sold for, whether it made any money from it and what made them take it down.
“It’s a good first step, but there are still things I am trying to pursue,” Teodoro said. “I’m a small independent artist, so it does feel very David and Goliath.”
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