Stevie K vs Urban Outfitters: The Power of Social Media Outrage

Urban Outfitters Rips Off Stevie K; The Internet Gets Revenge

Artist Stevie K, who sells jewelry on Etsy, got an alert that Urban Outfitters, which is notorious for copying independent designers' work and churning it back out to the mass market, had struck again. It looked like UO had ripped off Stevie's design for her "World of Love necklaces", rebranding them as "I Heart ____".

Stevie blogged about it on Tumblr, and the story metastasized to Facebook, and then to the wider web, boosted by bloggers such as Amber Karnes, and eventually getting the Boing Boing Boost. "Urban Outfitters" became a trending topic on Twitter yesterday, and not in a good way.

While only tangentially responding to the avalanche of tweets calling for a boycott against them (which would be pretty to pull off- just go to Salvation Army instead), Urban Outfitters quietly pulled the "I Heart ____" necklaces from its website and its brick-and-mortar store shelves.

Photos

Stevie K's I Heart New York Necklace

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uploaded by Jordan Yerman

This is an object lesson in web outrage. Amber Karnes doesn't have an army of followers, but the ones she has are passionate about art and design. There was some crossover between the sort of web user who would follow Amber Karnes (and bloggers like her) and the sort who shops at UO, and the Stevie K story flipped those users: Urban Outfitters' Facebook wall was attacked by a Trojan Horseful of its own fans. 

Web Rage: Like the Engine Warning Light

Never underestimate the power of righteous indignation. They say it's easier to smile than to frown, but calling for a boycott on Twitter requires as close to zero effort as one can imagine; that minimal effort times thousands can spell actual damage to a company's reputation and sales figures. Web rage may be cheap, but it's not meaningless: if someone calls your company a pack of thieves, it's a safe bet that they won't shop at your store the next day.

Really, though, UO should have surely learned from Hot Topic and Cookssource, but lifting designs from elsewhere would appear to be an established part of its business plan. Consumers are getting more and more engaged with the stores they patronize, so this sort of stunt will only get harder and harder to pull off. The easiest solution: design your own stuff.