40+ Businesses Shein Stole Designs From: The Complete List

A couple of months ago, I spent a few weeks researching fast fashion brand Shein and compiled a list of the 6 most problematic things I found. One topic I touched on was the plagiarism and art theft Shein has and is still committing. With this post, I’m hoping to shine a light on the designers and artists who had to watch their design being stolen and sold for a much lower price. A lot of these products are handmade and the creators spent hours, days or even weeks coming up with the ideas and creating the product. Many of these small businesses and artists aren’t able to take legal action. Something we can do as consumers, is give credit to the original creators and show them a little support. Continue reading to see the list of currently 41 businesses that had their designs stolen by Shein, but I am constantly updating it. 

Fashion brands often take inspiration from each other and the constant changing of fashion trends results in very similar clothes in different stores. However, Shein doesn’t take inspiration, they copy the products to a tee, using the exact same colours and details. And they don’t only do this with clothes. I initially thought Shein was only stealing from fashion designers, as they mostly focus on fashion. But it turns out they also take art from illustrators, digital artists and even painters. They put the artwork on products like sweaters, phone cases and wall prints. Shein or factories that Shein sources from, search the internet for artists and small brands and make exact copies of their designs. They remake the products using cheaper materials and sell the designs for unrealistically low prices. For the original artists and designers, it’s almost impossible to compete with this, because the average consumer would rather go for the cheaper one.

Let’s support these (small) businesses by checking out their products and maybe giving them a follow on social media. If you decide to purchase something from these businesses, you’ll get a better quality product that was (hand)made with lots of love and precision and will be a lot less harmful for the environment than Shein’s products. Plus, you’ll be buying from the original creator of the design. Buying from an artist or designer doesn’t just mean buying a product. You’re buying the hours and days they spent on it and a piece of their life and creative mind. 

If you’re used to shopping from fast fashion brands like Shein, you might be a bit disappointed and taken aback when you see the prices of the original pieces. I get it. The low prices in stores have made us believe that’s how much clothes and other products are worth. Just know that the prices the original artists set are much more realistic and ethical. A lot has to be calculated into the price: materials, resources, human labor, transport, etc. Shein’s prices don’t realistically reflect how much it takes and what it costs the earth. They cut down on human labor and use the cheapest and most harmful materials. But to learn more about this, you can check the previous post where I list 6 reasons why you should try to avoid Shein: 

6 Reasons You Should Never Shop At Shein

A lot of these artists and designers received comments like “your design isn’t even that special so it could be just a coincidence that they look similar”, and I would agree with that…if it only happened once or twice. But here’s a list of already 40+ designs that look very similar so we are way past the point of a mere coincidence. If you’re not convinced yet and are still a bit sceptical, let’s scroll down and look at these “coincidences”. By the way, I’m only showing one or a few instances from each designer/artist. Some of them got more than one of their designs stolen so this list is only to show the businesses, and not a full list of all the designs that got stolen. That would be a much longer list. 

I divided them into four different categories: fashion, art and other. Fashion has 2 categories, because Shein seems to have a special love for crochet designs, so I made a separate category for crochet and knit. You can click in the menu below to go directly down to one of the categories.

NOTE
If you see another designer or business that got a design stolen or if it happened to you, please contact me through email or Instagram, or comment below so I can keep the list updated! 

Crochet & Knit

Other Clothing Brands & Designers

Art

Jewellery

Which copy is the most shocking to you?