Here’s why Cassper won’t make a noise about the new Zara sneaker range

Rapper and businessman Cassper Nyovest has chosen to remain quiet and keep his head down and not be involved in a debate over his sneaker on the socials.

Cassper saw a tweet in which he was tagged about a new sneaker from international clothing retailer Zara that had a striking resemblance to his and instead of commenting the rapper chose peace.

A tweep urged the rapper to speak up, claiming the retailer's similar sneaker amounts to “theft”.

“Be very loud this is theft! Asoze kaloku beke le beke Zara steals SA designs?! They're not Mr Price kaloku.”

However instead of taking up arms Cassper wanted to focus on the bigger picture.

“Mxm. If there's one guy who will never win this battle on Twitter or any social media platform, it's me. I would rather just come out with a new shoe and keep it moving. I'm excited about our new drop coming later this year. The ROF 990s doing well, the at a good stable rate,” tweeted Cassper

When he virtually launched Root of Fame on July 8 2021, he said the inspiration kicked in when the country was under Covid-19 restrictions

“My fame didn’t matter. For the first time in my life it was useless. I then asked myself how I can package this fame and sell it. I had to make a product that not only is associated with my name but also gives people a taste of how it feels to be me. I had to dig deep into the roots, hence the name ‘Root Of Fame’.”

It's not the first time a clothing giant has been lambasted for constantly “stealing” other people's ideas for profit. Laduma of Maxhosa by Laduma sought legal action last years against the clothing retailer over his signature Xhosa-inspired sock collection.

Laduma  expressed his feelings about it on Instagram, and said he was determined to fight Zara in a court of law. 

“I’ve had a few copyright infringement cases in the past, and won majority of them, but Zara took this one to great extremes. My lawyers are dealing with this matter, fully understanding that this is Zara’s business model. Regardless of such we will enforce our entitlement of laying criminal charges under the SA Copyright Act, 98,” he wrote.

In a statement issued to TshisaLIVE by Zara it said it had removed the socks from its online and physical stores. 

Zara's holding company, Inditex, said it viewed the allegations seriously. 

“Inditex, the parent company of Zara, has the utmost respect for individual creativity and takes all claims concerning third party intellectual property rights very seriously. As a preventive action, the process to immediately remove this item both from stores and online was activated at the moment this situation was brought to our attention,” read the statement provided to TshisaLIVE.

Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.