How the Shefit Ultimate Sports Bra Squad Tackles Copycat Scam Bras

Since we first introduced our Ultimate Sports Bra we've known it's pretty damn great. So great in fact, we have a few websites trying to capitalize on our success and frankly, we’re frustrated; and it looks like you are too. We’ve answered thousands upon thousands of comments, concerns, calls, emails, messages, and texts concerning this issue and wanted to give you a quick update on what’s happened and what we are doing to attempt to shut down copycat product lines.

At the end of March, we made a video that Sara Marie, our owner was in to demonstrate the patented “zip, cinch, lift” technology that makes the Shefit Ultimate Sports Bra, the best high impact choice out there; everyone loved it. So much so that it accumulated over 10 million views in just a matter of days on our social channels. We sponsored it on Facebook for a few days to gain even more views and awareness of our amazing technology and then something rather unexpected and irritating happened, a company ripped the video from Facebook, copied it, uploaded it to their own site began using it, then another, and another.

This process is called “freebooting”, yeah it’s so common it has A NAME! Freebooting companies strip content from a media-hosting website like a blog, Facebook or Instagram, YouTube, etc and re-upload it without the creator’s permission, to their own site or platform in order to gain a large following or for commercial profit through sales or advertising revenue. In our case, these companies (we’re looking at you Baret Brothers, Kissland, Gear for All) used it to sell knock-off bras which they affectionately rename things like “She’s Fit” or “Ultimately the One” Sports Bra. These sites mostly use sponsored posts (ads) through Facebook (and some on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook) to lure unsuspecting women in need of quality high impact support to their own e-commerce sites through a shortened link to “the deal of the year” which they claimed was anywhere from 1 bra to a 3-pack of “Shefit” bras for anywhere from $24-50 USD. They use urgency like a clock ticking down or words like “limited inventory” and so on to trick you into purchasing their product. Sometimes they even ship a bra and say something like, “we were out of that bra, so we replaced it with this bra,” which is NOT cool.

Reports from some of these victims tell us that ship times would sometimes take months for product to appear - sometimes they didn't show up at all, that product was shipped directly from China, and upon arrival and inspection, not only was the bra “just” a normal sports bra, but especially lacks the Shefit patented “zip, cinch, lift” technology that was we are known for and is demonstrated in the viral video of Sara that lured them into the faux website in the first place. Just because it has some velcro on it doesn't mean it is a Shefit Ultimate Sports Bra. Thanks to a loyal Shefit fan, we acquired a scam bra, just look at the difference in the bras!!

Scam bra on the left (size M), Shefit Ultimate Sport Bra on the right (size M)

Shefit Ultimate Sports Bra (size M) on top, scam bra on the bottom (size M)

To put it as nicely as possible, Facebook has turned a blind eye to NUMEROUS requests to shut these scam sites down or at least make it impossible for them to advertise using our marketing materials. Our staff, family and friends began investigating brands and started reporting ON their pages the fraudulent practices in an attempt to protect others from making the mistake. The result of which was nearly everyone we know and a small army of our Facebook family getting blocked and also reported to Facebook. Most of us wear this as a badge of honor, but we were still unable to stop it at the grassroots level. To date, you have helped defend our brand online and we are working hard to get these companies shut down or at least pull our property from their sites so no other unsuspecting buyers are tricked into this scam. 

So while our legal team attempts to sort this out, two things happened to us that were both a blessing and a curse: 1) we sold out of nearly every bra - the sensation that was the viral video wiped out our inventory “Shark Tank Effect” style. A projected years worth of inventory sold in less than six months. 2) in July we then popped into a phase called “pre-order” which after a scam seems really, really shady. "Pre-order” at Shefit.com is a method of reserve. While our manufacturing team is working hard to get product to us ASAP, we are struggling to give assurances to the members of our e-commerce community that a pre-order is NOT a scam. I mean who can blame these shoppers? We get it. Asking for money up front for a product that ships in September sounds bonkers with all that’s going on; however, we have always delivered and it is the only way that we can address the shortage of product and guarantee that the size you need/want will be available when the next batch of product comes in. 

To pre-order, you simply place an order online at shefit.com just like you normally would ONLY from the Shefit.com website, you pick a size, and a button pops up but instead of ORDER it says PRE-ORDER, simply click that, pay for your purchase and as soon as the first bra hits our warehouse shelf, we ship it out to you. Our estimated ship date is the first part of September for black and white Ultimate Sports Bra sizes showing currently out of stock. We do still have some sizes in inventory, that’s another reason why ordering online is so important - you will know immediately if your product is in stock or in pre-order through our secure inventory and ordering system at Shefit.com.