A few days ago, GoldLink released his At What Cost merchandise line, which featured one-of-a-kind up-cycled vintage T-shirts that were hand-cut and sewn by Lil Backwood. However, GoldLink’s design team is currently under fire for using another designer’s graphic T-shirt without giving credit.
The original T-shirt was created last year by a small T-shirt label called poly5000, whose designer/owner sent the shirt as a free gift to GoldLink out of fandom.
“A few months later, now, I find out that it is being resold for his merch. I understand it is just 1-of-1 but I believe the principle is still there. I wouldn’t have even cared if he didn’t wear it, threw it away, or even gave it to someone, but the fact that he took a shirt I sent him for free and resold it as his merch without my permission nor any recognition bothers me,” the designer states in his Reddit post.
“My main concern is that there are other brands who are also being recycled and sold,” he continues. “At the end of the day I’m a really small brand and I’m just trying to make it out there. I as well as many other startup brands put lots of work into our designs, so seeing someone making it on HYPEBEAST because they used my design is discouraging.”
poly5000 and other individuals contacted GoldLink’s design team about the situation — see below for their Twitter responses and share your thoughts in the comments.
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