More Wiggle woes

Ber Nard

This time it's plagiarism.

http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/wiggle ... ism/017031

slowbike

Yup on this view it is a bit too close to the original design ....
Certainly something that makes me wonder if I want to carry on buying from wiggle ... I'll wait till their response first though ....

dilatory

Meh. DHB one is nicer to be honest. It's just stars. If you want to have some sort of creative control you're going to have to do more than just put a bunch of stars on a jersey.

I doubt Wiggle are stupid enough to straight up rip a design off. What probably happened is after looking at her catalogue they realise how dull it was and never got back in touch, then a new designer a year or two later also likes stars (because let's be honest, they're very much fashionable) and there we have it, put with a nicer colour combination the jersey looks tonnes better and they ran with it. If anything, it looks closer to some USA jersey than the claimed "original".

frisbee

They both look like Wonder Woman's catsuit outfit as well.

Stars is hardly an original pattern.

bendertherobot

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/dhb-aw14/?o=3

In context, here are their new designs. Some blocks, squares, polka dots and some stars. A range, as it were.

A jersey with some stars on it. On the top half. They are stars. I can see why she's outraged. But, I have to say, I know which I prefer.

DKay

(sorry)

gethinceri

Well as she obviously invented stars I'm on her side.
I've always thought her a tool.

ju5t1n

DHB one looks more like this to me

morstar

Hmmm, difficult area but I do have some sympathy. If Dhb have never done stars and they are pretty uncommon outside of the US strip, the timing of their using stars is, at best, unfortunate. Arguably more pre-meditated. If they'd never explored the avenue of working with her and her designs are in the public domain then the accusation holds no water. Given the reported circumstances, you can surely sympathise with her a little bit?

dilatory

>The timing

It was 18 months ago. The idea that the people who looked at her portfolio 18 months ago would've been in talks with their current designers is conspiratory at best. Her jersey is lazy and what I'd expect from a college student. At least the Wiggle design has some sensitivity to fabric and colours.

Undertones

One item in the new range is called a flashlight.

teehee.

dilatory

Undertones wrote:

One item in the new range is called a flashlight.

teehee.

You know the fleshlight's name comes because it looks like a flashlight... The American term for a torch. Not so funny when you keep this in mind.

Moonbiker

The mens jerseys don't get the jazzy stars like this one does 8)

morstar

dilatory wrote:

>The timing

It was 18 months ago. The idea that the people who looked at her portfolio 18 months ago would've been in talks with their current designers is conspiratory at best. Her jersey is lazy and what I'd expect from a college student. At least the Wiggle design has some sensitivity to fabric and colours.

And how quickly do you think products get from drawing board to launch? About 18 months is pretty typical. It's typically going to be 4-5 months from placing order to stock landing in UK and there's a whole load more stuff going on prior to placing order.

But, I'm not going all out on this one. As I say, it's a difficult area.

Undertones

dilatory wrote:

Undertones wrote:

One item in the new range is called a flashlight.

teehee.

You know the fleshlight's name comes because it looks like a flashlight... The American term for a torch. Not so funny when you keep this in mind.

A jersey called the fanny torch would be 10x funnier I agree.

bendertherobot

Keeping up with this story is hard. It's so fluid.

It seems that the complaint is not about the original star jersey linked to in the original piece. Neither is it about her star long sleeve (more similar).

It's about this one:



being merged with this one:



I confess, I have no idea what to think anymore.

d_o_g

That she is a self promoting fool, more intent on generating any media interest in herself than resolving any dispute?

bad_ash

I didn't get any Haribo in the order I received today. Loads of room in the box to add them. Gutted.

morstar

D O G wrote:

That she is a self promoting fool, more intent on generating any media interest in herself than resolving any dispute?

Possibly harsh, possibly quite accurate. We don't know.
I like Wiggle a lot, they provide a great etail service.

However, if as a potential supplier / sub-contractor, I felt they'd done me over, I'd use any (legal) means at my disposal to try to rectify the situation. Not quite sure how you can fall down on one side of the fence so adamantly given the info in the thread.

Note, I'm not saying I side with her, we don't know enough about the case. I'm trying to provide some balance to what seems to be a default position, "as cyclists we like Wiggle, therefore she's a self promoting whore".

bendertherobot

Wiggle's response is fairly categorical.

lostboysaint

As promised, following our internal investigation here is our statement regarding Anna Glowinski.

At Wiggle we pride ourselves on our integrity, fairness and transparency. Therefore we have taken the claim made by Anna Glowinski (through Facebook on Friday 24th October 2014) that we have plagiarised one of her designs for our new dhb ‘Superstar’ Jersey very seriously.

After conducting a detailed and thorough internal investigation we have concluded that no plagiarism has occurred and that no designer employed by us (directly or indirectly) has broken any of our policies or, more importantly, contravened our values.

We categorically do not participate in or condone plagiarism under any circumstances. This is a zero tolerance policy for us. Our review gives us full confidence in our internal processes and the integrity of our staff in ensuring that this could not happen. We thank our colleagues for their openness and support in resolving this issue in a timely manner.

As this story is in the public domain, for our customers’ information and on behalf of our hard working colleagues that have been affected by this story, we layout our key findings below:
• On 17/1/2013, Anna Glowinski met with members of our Cycle Clothing Buying team at the London Bicycle Show at Excel.
• On 24/1/2013, Anna Glowinski sent a proposal to our Cycle Clothing Buying team regarding the possibility of her designing an exclusive collection for Wiggle.
• On 12/7/2013 our Cycle Clothing Buying team met with Anna to discuss this potential collaboration.
• On 7/8/2013, having reviewed Anna’s proposal, our Cycle Clothing Buying team emailed Anna, politely declining to range the product and sharing our feedback with her.

• On 21/7/2014, following her resignation from AnaNichoola, Anna Glowinski contacted our Cycle Clothing Buying team again, enquiring if there was the possibility of her working for Wiggle. We considered this kind offer carefully, but again decided to decline this proposal. No designs or products were discussed in these subsequent communications.

• It is important to highlight that our Cycle Clothing Buying team (based in Portsmouth) work independently from our dhb Design Team (based in London). There has never until this investigation been a conversation between these two teams at Wiggle regarding Anna Glowinski or AnaNichoola.

• Therefore it is unsurprising that in parallel (and unrelated to) the conversations and meetings between Anna and our Cycle Clothing Buying Team, our London based dhb Design team were independently working on our Autumn/Winter 2014 range, including our ‘Superstar’ Jersey. We register the intellectual property of all of our designs and to do this must save all of the ‘inspiration materials’ and initial ‘draft designs’. We can confirm with confidence by reviewing this audit trail, that the dhb Design team had no knowledge of any conversation with Anna Glowinski, nor any sight of her designs. Additionally, there had been no communication between our Portsmouth Cycle Clothing Buying Team and our London dhb Design Team relating to this new range.

• The inspiration for the Superstar Jersey (and indeed the other designs in our dhb Blok range, which it forms part of) involved many influences, including national flags and jockey jerseys – absolutely none of which could be traced from AnaNichoola or Anna Glowinski. To be clear the dhb Design team have never been in contact with Anna Glowinski or AnaNichoola Ltd at any stage.

We have shared this statement with Anna before publishing and have offered to meet up and take her though our design process and all of our inspiration material. We appreciate that the coincidence of the designs might have been puzzling for her, though there are so many designs in the marketplace today that it is unsurprising that these similarities coincidently appear from time to time. We wish Anna every success in her new endeavors.

We would also like to take this opportunity to reassure our loyal customers that we, as ever, stay true to the core ethics and principles that have led to our success to date and thank them for their continued support and custom.

Thanks for reading.

Wiggle.

charlie_potatoes

No mention of Bad Ash's missing Haribo then?

lostboysaint

No, the bastards.

bendertherobot

morstar wrote:

D O G wrote:

That she is a self promoting fool, more intent on generating any media interest in herself than resolving any dispute?

Possibly harsh, possibly quite accurate. We don't know.
I like Wiggle a lot, they provide a great etail service.

However, if as a potential supplier / sub-contractor, I felt they'd done me over, I'd use any (legal) means at my disposal to try to rectify the situation. Not quite sure how you can fall down on one side of the fence so adamantly given the info in the thread.

Note, I'm not saying I side with her, we don't know enough about the case. I'm trying to provide some balance to what seems to be a default position, "as cyclists we like Wiggle, therefore she's a self promoting whore".

I think there's been crap from both sides.

As a cyclist I quite like facts. So, when presented with something I like to hear what the other person says about it, for balance. We got none of that over the weekend. So it was easy for the whole thing to become conjecture. Now we have balance, or, at least, both sides. There may be a rebuttal to come, from Anna, but Wiggle's explanation seems, on the face of it, sound.

I have to say I found it surprising that those who saw Wiggle as a Goliath would, equally, dismiss the possibility that, given its size, it was entirely possible the people who met with her were not the people who designed the jersey.

darkhairedlord

not copying someone elses work doesn't preclude infringement of design-right or through a registered design.

although for that wiggle would have had to copy her design, which they haven't.
If she had a case she would get lawyered up, but she hasn't, which says it all really.

d_o_g

Still, at least we know her name now, and some of us may have even been on her Facebook.

"There's no such thing as bad publicity."

Philly8mt

I think she's having a laugh.

She slates Wiggle like some silly little immature schoolgirl all over social media in the hope of creating a "Cafe Roubaix" situation to pump some life into her dreary clothing range!?!?

Sue her Wiggle!!!!

Philly8mt

P.S. ....

How awful is that jersey ... Copy that?!?! .... Really????

arran77

Philly8mt wrote:

P.S. ....

How awful is that jersey ... Copy that?!?! .... Really????

Exactly, it was a shite design and she was just looking for attention for her brand :roll:

Roberto di Velo

I'm always impressed by the quality of Wiggle's products and services, so I'm not inclined to bitch about them, although coincidentally I'm not that keen on the design of their jerseys.

That said, as a designer, I do have sympathy for anyone who feels they've had their worked ripped off. From experience, it's amazing how often your ideas end up being appropriated by people you nearly worked for. So as an example, I worked up a design for a visitor centre as part of an open competition a few years back; the eventual scheme that was built used elements of our design, but we received no credit or of course pay. We seriously thought about suing, but theft of intellectual property is incredibly difficult to prove. There are very few ideas that are truly original, the creativity comes from using them in an interesting or context appropriate way.

Anyone who doesn't think that serious plagiarism goes on, should read up about the Olympic torch design. Either way, it doesn't look to me like Anna Glowinski has enough of a case for legal recourse.

awavey

I dont understand why Anna G is getting so much grief off some people for this, under the Ana Nichoola brand she designed various pieces of womens cycling kit with the stars theme on for a number of years, it virtually became her/their design signature, and whilst maybe because it was only kit designed for women, meant it didnt quite break into the overall cycling community conciousness in a big way, and it wasnt that cheap, Ive probably only seen a handful of women other than myself in London wearing it and one of those was Anna G herself. (Ive got the purple stars SS top & very nice it is too).

But for certainly a few years, decent quality, well designed womens cycling kit meant Anna G/Ana Nichoola & it usually had stars on it, and it would be unlikely for any designer in the same field, not to be completely aware of her design presence or styling.

So whilst I dont look at that dhb jersey, and immediately think that its an Ana Nichoola design ripoff, I do look at it and think that does share alot of the same design cues with the stuff they were making, and Anna G has every right to ask where theyve come from with this, if her and Wiggle were ever talking around kit design ideas at the time this dhb kit was coming together . Wiggle have come back with a fairly detailed response to those questions and Im not sure it can or will go any further really.

but as for the its just a publicity thing, well Anna left Ana Nichoola earlier in the summer,and the brand seems to have disappeared since,the last set of kit they did was autumn/winter 13, and its been mostly sold out for a while ,sure theres the odd piece on ebay still but you arent going to suddenly on the back of this go and be able to buy a whole bunch of Ana Nichoola kit with stars on.