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Forever 21, Steve Madden Accused Of Knocking Off Rihanna’s Fenty Puma Slides

By Noel Zelindo
Published on: 10:48 PST, Mar 26, 2017

Rihanna’s clothing and footwear designs for her ongoing collaboration with Puma for her Fenty x Puma line have been nothing short of a success, so it’s not surprising that the “Love on the Brain” songstress’ coveted designs have already spawned a few copycats from well-known retailers.

Rihanna's Fenty x Puma designs have already spawned several copycats from well-known retailers.
[Image by Victor Boyko/Getty Images]

Rihanna debuted the latest installment of her collaborative collection with Puma two weeks ago, which included the highly anticipated satin bow slide in silver pink and olive green. The slides, which are still available in limited quantities on Puma’s official website as well as select retailers such as Nordstrom and Urban Outfitters, currently retail for $90, a slight increase from the singer’s faux fur slides that were included in her Fall 2016 collection last year.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BRbT66KDrbb/?taken-by=badgalriri&hl=en

Given the success of Rihanna’s Fenty x Puma slides, in both their fur and satin versions, it’s not surprising that the designs have warranted a few copycats to begin emerging in a variety of retailers. However, it looks like Rihanna’s fans are less than impressed with the number of brands that have begun taking their design cues from straight from the Bates Motel actress.

Teen Vogue recently pointed out that perhaps the most recent, and arguably one of the most obvious, copycat products recently surfaced on Forever 21’s website in the form of the brand’s dusty pink and olive “satin bow slides,” which bear a striking resemblance to Rihanna’s own satin bow slides from her latest Fenty x Puma collection.

The site presents several examples of Twitter users who also felt the designs were a little too similar and, with Forever 21’s version of the satin bow slides coming in at the much more wallet-friendly price of $24.90, prompted some users to question whether or not the brand was trying to put RiRi “out of business.”

Forever 21 isn’t the only retailer to have seemingly knocked-off Rihanna’s Fenty x Puma bow slides, however; earlier this month, The Snobette pointed out that Topshop also seemed to have taken a page out of one of Rihanna’s design books, having created a highly similar version of both Rih’s bow slides as well as her Fall 2016 faux fur slides.

It’s also worth pointing out that while Rihanna has expressed her love for Topshop in the past, having been photographed spending five straight hours shopping at the retailer’s London flagship store a few years back. The songstress recently won a lawsuit against the brand in 2015 after they refused to stop selling a t-shirt featuring an image of her face. Rihanna sued Topshop’s parent company, Arcadia, for $5 million in 2013, having emerged victorious just two years ago after London’s Court of Appeal upheld their ruling that the retailer couldn’t sell a t-shirt bearing the singer’s image without her consent, MTV reports.

Rihanna's faux fur slides, bow slides, and creepers have been knocked-off by well-known retailers.
[Image by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images]

Meanwhile, Steve Madden has also been criticized for reportedly knocking-off Rihanna’s Fenty x Puma designs, having presented a highly similar version of Rihanna’s faux fur slide in three colorways—grey, pink, and black—last year. In addition, She Finds also points out that Steve Madden created what appears to be a knock-off version of Rihanna’s highly coveted Puma creepers as well, which Madden named “Holllly” and presented in both black and camel colorways, in April 2016.

While Rihanna has yet to comment on the supposed copycats, several sites point out that it’s unlikely that Rihanna and Puma will be able to pursue legal action against any of the retailers that appear to be infringing upon their designs, unless Puma was able to secure the proper design patent in an effort to protect their latest creations under the Fenty x Puma brand.

What do you think of the number of knock-offs of Rihanna’s Fenty x Puma designs?

[Featured Image by Jacopo Raule/Getty Images]

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