Johnny Cupcakes just can't catch a break. Not only does he have to spend his days explaining why there are no actual baked goods in his store, constantly dealing with disappointed sugar-craving crazies, he also has to deal with half-baked imitators trying to poach his piping-hot style. First, it was Billabong, which liked Johnny's sweet tooth design so much that they co-opted it. (Sadly, "surfer tooth" just doesn't have the same ring.)
But at least Billabong stopped at one (that we know of). Rev Run (Joseph Simmons, of Run-DMC fame) has two daughters who, apparently not content with a rich father and a television show, seem intent on copying Johnny's ideas for their own inexplicably named "Pastry" clothing and shoe line. Johnny's "Make Cupcakes, Not War" has morphed into "Make Pastry, Not War," while the overarching slogan for this baked-goods battle seems to be "Make Stuff That Looks Like Someone Else's Stuff."
We can acknowledge that there are only so many pastry-related t-shirt ideas out there. Once you've gone with "let them eat cake" (with 21st-century "awesom-alicious" embellishment) and "fresh baked" (used by both JC and Pastry), there might not be that much left to do. Still, it seems unlikely that Pastry's "war" shirt would have ended up looking so much like Johnny's if the company hadn't seen his shirt first—particularly given the gauche, glittery nature of other Pastry designs.
On the other hand, a commenter points out that Johnny himself "ripped off" (one might also say "parodied") Fred Perry with his oven mitt circle design. There's also the curious case of the Sox logo, not to mention Air Johnny. Still, at least JC's putting his own spin on iconic designs, something that can't be argued as easily for Pastry—which also features items bearing striking resemblance to existing designs, including some "Puma"-ish purse offerings and rather "Uggsy" boots.
But it doesn't seem like Johnny's been too affected by the imitation. He just visited San Francisco, where hundreds of fans lined up to meet him. His website is as loaded with interesting items as ever. And with regard to his store on Newbury, we still wish it had cupcakes inside, but we don't let him fool us anymore.
add to digg
add to stumble upon
add to reddit