Oh No They Didn’t!
POSTED IN: Blog Posts, Culture, Social Justice
When I first saw someone Tweet about a new Sketchers shoe called Bobs, I thought it was a joke. The Bobs shoe is a spitting image of the very popular TOMS shoes right down to the cut, style, and tag placement. They even go so far as to say that for every shoe you buy, a pair will be given to a child in need. Hmmm, where have I heard that idea before?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for social justice causes and I love seeing more corporations becoming socially conscious, but don’t you think you could show even the tiniest bit of creativity when creating a new product or campaign? Competition is good. Outright copying is lame.
This entry was posted on Monday, October 11th, 2010 at 3:52 pm and is filed under Blog Posts, Culture, Social Justice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Visit My Website
October 11, 2010
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How can legal action not be taking on this? Seriously, this is so terrible…
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October 11, 2010
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The only thing that legal action would bring is harm to the social cause. How would a smaller company like Tom’s be able to pay the ridiculous fees of a long court battle and still continue to give shoes away?
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October 11, 2010
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the funny part is that Toms nor anyone else will never actually tell sketchers that it is lame and they should stop…how is anyone going to tell a group that is ‘helping children in need’ to stop?
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October 11, 2010
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i guess it could be a walmart’s equate brand vs the name brand kinda thing. if not, there’s some lawyerin’ up ’bout to happen.
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October 11, 2010
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Not only that, but I don’t think TOMS shoes would even want to get into legal action over something like that. It would kind of be like Compassion suing World Vision (though you could hardly compare Sketchers to either charity but you get the point).
I just think that it’s stupid a company as big as Sketchers would even try to do something like that. They’re the ones who look like idiots in this case.
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October 11, 2010
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I like it, actually. I’d love to see TOMS come out publicly and say they’re all for it too. Really, what do we care about? Giving kids shoes… or building brand equity and taking market share?
-Marshall Jones Jr.
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October 11, 2010
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They don’t even look cool…TOMS have much better curves.
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October 11, 2010
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I agree Lindsey. It still just baffles me that their designers and Creative Department got away with such a blatant rip-off!
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October 11, 2010
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Well, they know TOMS really won’t do anything about it (or can’t afford to) so they’ll just rip it right off.
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October 11, 2010
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As TOMS seems to have a strong presence in the social media world, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this go viral and folks boycott Sketchers over this… simply out of principle.
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October 11, 2010
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Look at all the Chuck Taylor rip offs, though, or for that matter all the Apple rip offs. It’s just part of the game. Your company is successful when other companies start copying it. And in that, I think TOMS will come out as even more of a leader than they already are.
-Marshall Jones Jr.
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October 11, 2010
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I would still buy the TOMS first before the Bobs. I can’t imagine walking around w/a pair of shoes that said BOBS on them. That is just weird.
Tom is way cooler
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October 11, 2010
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Toms, Bobs, either way they look like shoes that someone named Tinkerbell would wear…
I hope both Tom and Bob can get along and help kids get some shoes on their feet.
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October 11, 2010
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A couple of things I can say with absolute certainty about this issue. Skechers has ensured that I will never buy their product again. I am moved to pick up a couple pair of Tom’s I otherwise would not have sprung for right now. And that’ about all I have to say about that!
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October 11, 2010
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Well… I hate that they stole the idea. I’d like to say that the Sketchers coming up with their own shoe would make the idea more mainstream and help advance the cause, but who doesn’t know about TOMS?
This is just bad juju. Boo on Sketchers.
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October 12, 2010
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This is super lame. Have an original idea.
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October 12, 2010
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I think it shows a lack of confidence in its own brand. This states that Sketchers does not feel strongly enough in its name, market share and product, to solely make an effort from there.
Personally I lose a lot of respect for a company who lacks its own identity and vision.
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October 12, 2010
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I am not sure I could pull off shoes like this, but I love the idea. And I am not sure the reason behind the obvious copy. But at the same time, I don’t care. Perhaps they are trying to help; nothing more.
Look at their line of boots. Take any Sketchers boot and put it against a Dr. Martens boot and you have the same thing. They use the same standards. I am not saying this is right (it is a direct copy) but they are capitalizing on low cost shoes to make a huge profit for a great cause. I don’t care if they look the same or not, the cause is what matters most.
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October 29, 2010
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the best kids shoes are those that are made of natural leather but they are a bit more expensive compared to synthetics `
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November 16, 2010
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most brands of kids shoes are using synthetic leather which is sometimes hard for a kid’s feet ,’”
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June 12, 2011
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I hate to see companies ripping each other off like that. Sketchers seem to be everywhere all of the sudden. Their claim to fame is the tone-up soul.I predict they will be responsible for a lot of knee problems. frederick sallaz
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July 9, 2011
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