Sandal scandal: Acne Studios in trouble after similarity to charity shoe

Luxury fashion brand Acne Studios is in trouble for allegedly copying a charity’s shoe design.

The charity The Shoe That Grows was founded in 2008 by Kenton Lee, who noticed during his time working at an Kenyan orphanage that the children quickly outgrew their shoes without being provided with new ones.

So he created a clever expanding shoe which can be adjusted to fit five different shoe sizes – perfect for growing feet – which was launched in 2013.

But earlier this year, Acne released a pair of “African-inspired” shoes as part of their Pre-Fall ’16 catwalk show – and they look strikingly similar.

It doesn’t take a genius to see that they appear to be near-identical besides the colour and clever functionality.

And after checking out the footwear, director of online blog The Shoe Consultant Susannah Davda told Vice that “Acne’s tractor tire soled sandal is strikingly similar in appearance to The Shoe That Grows”.

When Vice first contacted Acne, the fashion house stated they believed it wasn’t inspired by the charity.

But they later took it down after being made aware of its similarities for the second time, saying: “Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We do see the similarities, which was not intentional. We have decided to stop selling the shoe for further investigation.”

What do you think? Does Acne’s shoe look too similar to The Shoe That Grows’? Tweet us at @YahooStyleUK.

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