By: Vanessa Nguyen, Staff Writer
Throughout the path of creating a name for themselves, celebrities eventually create a line of merch to put their name out there. Kylie Jenner has her “Kylie Cosmetics” line and Ariana Grande has her own line of apparel. Many stars create merchandise for their supporters to show their love, and most products turn out great. Here are a few times where things didn’t go the right way.
Olivia Rodrigo’s fans are bringing attention to her new, extremely low quality merch. Fans are angry that her merchandise isn’t as it seems on her website. Olivia Rodrigo is an actress most known for her role as Nina Salazer-Roberts in the hit T.V show High School Musical: The Musical: The Series and Paige Olvera in the Disney show Bizaardvark. Disney Channel media sensation turned singer-songwriter has since written many songs and an album, including hits Drivers Licence and Good 4 You. Her album “Sour” is listened to all around the world. Rodrigo’s team has crafted her brand into a line that’s relatable for teenagers , but is now receiving fire and heavy criticism from angry fans.
Many tiktokers have made videos about one of her merch items available for purchase, the Sour Triptych Tank. Customers who ordered a cropped white tank expected the product from the image, but instead received a long, dress-like tank that they had to crop themselves. Other fans bought her supposedly light, lilac purple bucket hat, but received it as a solid deep purple hat instead. Some received safety pin earrings that said “Suor” instead of “Sour”, and complained that the pins do not open for fixing. Her enraged TikTok fans continued to make many more videos addressing the situation which led her team to remove over half of the defective items from her website.
Along with Olivia’s dilemma with failed merchandise, James Charles, along with his infamous past, was faced with yet another scandal. James Charles is most known for being a makeup artist and beauty guru. In the past, he collaborated on Youtube videos with many other stars including Emma Chamberlain and The Dolan Twins. He started off as a local makeup artist who started a small Youtube channel where he posted makeup tutorials. While he continued to create and post videos, he eventually became a media sensation.
Back in 2020, he was accused of releasing merch products that look suspiciously similar to Ethan Klein, a YouTuber and podcaster who created his own brand, “Teddy Fresh”. James and his team, not only having a bad reputation beforehand, received a sea of hate for taking another YouTuber’s merch ideas. The color scheme was almost identical, yet James’ piece had “Sisters” written across, in addition to his merch brand titled, “Sister Apparel”. According to Ethan’s tweet that same week, his wife, Hila created the hoodie and multiple other hoodie ideas for his website. James responded back with a tweet stating he had never seen Klein’s design before releasing his products and already spoke to Ethan about the situation but never got a response. He ended the tweet with “If you’d like to continue our conversation and find a solution, my DM’s are open!!” And as far as the internet could tell, that situation was finally over.
The James Charles case is officially closed. Rodrigo’s, on the other hand, has not come to an end. Her fans are still afraid to purchase her products after seeing the reviews on social media and her team has yet to give out an explanation. She still has a few items on her website but removed over half of the products on her line due to criticism and obvious mistakes. As a personal fan of Olivia Rodrigo, I hope her team improves and fixes her line.
