Tribe Tropical founder hits out at Shein for selling swimwear look-alikes

A Queensland mother who started her own family swimwear business from her kitchen table has called out global fashion giant Shein after items that looked incredibly similar to her own designs started being sold on their website.

A small business owner says global clothing giant Shine has been selling replicas of four of her designs. Here is one comparison between Ms Gordon's outfits and the ones for sale by the Chinese fashion retailer.

A Bundaberg small businesswoman has called out fast fashion giant Shein after finding replicas of several of her unique swimwear styles for sale on their website.

Emily Gradon started Tribe Tropical in order to provide bright, beautiful and sun-safe swimwear for kids and families and in 2019 her label took out a Good Design Australia Award in Sydney.

But an online reverse image search recently led Ms Gradon to uncovering near-identical outfits being sold on the Chinese-based clothing website, Shein.

She said she‘d previously seen replicas popping up on Amazon, but those sellers were removed.

Ms Gradon said a total of four of her designs had been recreated on Shein’s website, including one of her newest patterns which had been an exclusive collaboration with a Brisbane designer.

Others looked nearly identical to the originals but had birds like galahs replaced with different parrots.

“I could see from the pictures that the quality wasn't there, but one of the prints had over 200 five-star reviews,” she said.

Ms Gradon said she felt powerless as the international seller took the product of her hard work and sold it to people around the globe.

“The most I can probably do is ask them to remove it, but there‘s no guarantee they won’t pop up again,” she said.

“Who‘s to say they won’t do it to some of my other prints?”

Ms Gradon said with Shein selling very similar designs to hers for around $11, there was no way she could even produce her items for that much.

Bargara mum Emily Gradon saw the need to protect her daughters, Anelise and Lilia, from the sun when she set up Tribe Tropical.

“It was just hurtful because I‘d spent so much money on these things,” she said.

“There‘s just so much that goes into a small business and people don’t realise it.

“These big multi-nationals just keep treading on us.”

After initially believing her design blueprints had been leaked, Ms Gradon said she was informed that people wanting to copy designs could do so with as much as an online photo.

Ms Gradon said she was forever grateful for the local community and her loyal customers who had supported her all the way.

“I didn‘t feel like I’d lost customers because my customers wouldn’t shop with Shein,” she said.

“People who shop with me shop with the brand.”

Ms Gradon said she wanted to raise awareness in order to let people know what was happening.

“I think Australians are becoming more aware of it,” she said.

“Hopefully Australians will think about shopping with them.”