HOW TO DEAL WITH COMPETITION AND COPYING
Let’s face it, every design has to come from somewhere, from what you’ve seen, what you’ve made better, yet there are times in which you can feel (or damn right know) you’ve been copied. Or feel like you are the only one who has launched a product only to blink and see that there are many out there doing the same but just a bit different.
How do you deal with copying or competition? I’ve dealt with this and although I can’t always say copy my example (haha see what i did there?), I can say when you find yourself in this position, look around to see how you can make it a better situation and how it can help your business.
Let’s deal with competition, there are two ways to look at your competitors, one would be that you are in competition with them and the other would be that there luckily there are other people doing the same as you as that means there is a market for it. To be honest I’m a bit crap with viewing competition, I’m aware of others people’s products you have to be to ensure you don’t end up putting out exactly the same as someone, but I try stay in my own lane when it comes to putting new products out. I believe that everyone comes from a different background so they will offer something different to me. With people that are so similar, it helps to see if you can help each other, that’s with recommending their service or product, exchanging discount codes to promote, obviously doing this with someone who has already established their business not someone who is copying what you do.
You can launch a product and it have the same end result as another company or brand but it can’t be exactly the same.
When I stocked Vanjo in a big retailer, the following season another independent brand was stocked cheaper but in the exact same shape bra, using Liberty Jersey like I was, but only sold in S,M, L thereby cutting their costs of the holding a big size range. Now to be fair to the retailer, that size range of S, M, L was probably easier to sell to their customer base and at that lower price point. But I was like “c’mon, it’s exactly the same as mine.”
Or was it? I mean it looked exactly the same down to the trims but I had no way of proving it (and if i did it was too late it was in the store). I get quite a lot of my shape inspiration from vintage swimwear usually the 50s or 60s era, why not lingerie? Personally I think the shapes are more daring, the colour pallet is in line with what I love and by choosing a different garment to be inspired by, and it means it stays just that - inspiration, not imitation. I also love using black trims with colourful fabric , or colourful trims with black fabric, and adore Liberty prints. Could this brand also like all that? Who knew?
What it came down to for me was if they copied me, I wanted them to know that they had been busted, and if they knew nothing about me but their designs were exactly like mine, I wanted them to know I was about. So I emailed them. Obviously not with my name, I was in my twenties and didn’t have the balls to declare myself. So I used my nineties email address (did anyone else have a funny first email? Until you realised that once you were applying for jobs that maybe the CEO didn’t want to employ “twinkletoes84” (just an example) so you got an email address with your actual name). I think I wrote along the lines of asking them if this was a special range in which they were collaborating with Vanjo (totally not obvious of me) as their designs were matching. I did get a reply stating no they weren’t and all of they designs were original. In the end after that season I extended the range, I kept the shape, only did one Liberty print and introduced bright meshes which sold through really well.
The next time was on Instagram back in 2016 someone took one of my lingerie sketches and re-posted it as theirs, I contacted them and requested if they were going to use my design to credit me for it. It wasn’t because they had used it on their feed it was because they said they had done it. I then began to mark all my drawings LvJ.
Two months after that another person did the same (with the LvJ initials on), stating that they had been practising their sketches and claimed my work as theirs. And they had about 15 lovely comments like “oh that’s brilliant” “your designs are really great” and she thanked them. I. Was. Fuming.
Again because someone had belatentdly stated my work was theres then and lapped up the praise. What didn’t help was at the time I had not long had my second baby, time was difficult to find to draw the best of times, and I was living on coffee and not much sleep. So I did what I probably wouldn’t recommend doing - I commented back on every person that had commented with a message along the lines, “I’m glad you like my designs, if you want to see anymore similar please follow me” Safe to say the post disappeared and I so far have not had anyone else do the same. What this led me to though was, launching a “how to sketch a bra and brief” e-book, so people could take my designs with my permission and use the templates to draw their own.
Regarding putting out work similar to others, if i’m aware of it I’ve changed plans. I usually have a rough outline of work I’m putting out in about a year (or more) in advance, usually that far ahead as I work for other designers and start ups as well and there is only so much time to release new work. In the planning if the product is delayed by either my time working on it or other factors; what happens to it is, it either misses the slot and I’ll come back to it, so the other work isn’t delayed, or depending on what I think it’s value is to others I will delay the work that is being released behind it.
I was due to release a new bra pattern with brief early last year and two weeks before it was due to launch another designer who does similar work to me launched a bra pattern that was so close to the one I was doing. I was in the position that samples had been made, the pattern had been graded and I was just editing the pattern pack. I spent the following couple of days debating to launch it or not. In the end I decided not to, it was all a bit too close, there are lots of lingerie patterns out there and I needed mine to all be linked, so you know they are from this company not someone else. So in the past year I have mapped out twelve new designs that I will work through and get them released.
You are always going to cross at some point with another brand or company, but when you produce work with integrity and a connection to your customer’s needs then you will always be on the right path. I pulled the pattern, because I realised that I whilst that pattern fitted in with other’s company brand, I didn’t want to produce patterns with no connection to my company or what I know my customer wants. That’s the key, it’s to keep going in the direction (your direction) of what your customer is requiring and what is inline with your brand.
A phrase which I wish I heard back when I was running Vanjo, when the other company did a similar design is “don’t worry about people stealing your ideas worry about the day they stop.”
Jeffery Zeldman
If you find yourself in a similar position of someone copying exactly your work, think of ways you can move on to make yours better. And if you find yourself launching a new product only to discover someone else has done the same, if you know it;s the right path for you, mark out your strengths of your product and company so people will see the difference.
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