Yung Lean’s Sad Boys collective have accused Urban Outfitters of stealing their designs in a new Facebook post. According to them, the high street store has used images and phrases from the group’s tour merch on a jacket without permission.
“The discussion of big corporations feeding off small independent creators and their work is too vast and depressing to conduct here,” they wrote yesterday. “So let´s settle with this - yoshi city belongs to us and our true fans · fuck u Urban Outfitters.”
Yung Gud also tweeted about the issue on Tuesday (October 10), calling the bomber jacket “ugly ass” and shaming anyone who had chosen to buy it.
The piece is currently described on the Urban Outfitters website as an “Urban Renewal Vintage Surplus Yoshi City Nights Black Coach Jacket”. It has the words “Yoshi City Nights 2002” emblazoned across the back, as well as a sad face symbol on the front. The design caught the collective’s attention as “Yoshi City” is the name of a track from Yung Lean’s 2014 LP Unknown Memory, while the sad face is commonly used on much of the Sad Boy merchandise.
The group have since offered more context on the incident in a follow-up statement, published on Thump yesterday evening. “We don't want to blame the fans buying the bootlegged gear, but rather inform them on where to buy the official gear in order to get the true experience on what we try to express in terms of music, art and clothing (and also directly support the artist that they like),” they said.
