🐷 This little piggy goes to the App Store

What does fast-fashion retailer Shein have in common with the Mafia? According to one lawsuit, organized crime.

Artists Krista Perry, Larissa Martinez, and Jay Baron all claim Shein cloned their work without permission to sell its own knockoff apparel, wall art, blankets, and pins.

The lawsuit further claims that “Shein has grown rich by committing individual infringements over and over again, as part of a long and continuous pattern of racketeering.”

If that’s true, Shein, valued at $66B, would be in violation of the United States’ Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act, passed in 1970 to take on organized crime.

What is racketeering?

Crimes committed in the course of business, which can mean everything from bribery to murder. Shein is not accused of murder, but it has been accused of:

• Harming the environment through overconsumption and pollution, like other fast-fashion retailers
• Unsafe working conditions, including allegations of forced labor
• Violating US tariff law
• Making clothes rife with unsafe chemicals, including lead

Key to this particular lawsuit, however, is copyright infringement — it accuses Shein of using its algorithms to determine fashion and decor trends, copying them, then churning out near-identical, cheaper versions.

An artist not included in the complaint previously accused Shein of selling $17 knockoffs of sweaters she hand-knitted and sold for $330.

Why go the RICO route?

Per The Wall Street Journal, at least 50 trademark or copyright infringement suits had been filed against Shein or its parent company, Zoetop Business Co., as of last July.

But attorney John Conway told Retail Dive that because Shein consists of several entities, many of which only exist for a short time, it’s hard to pinpoint which is “doing the copying.” Shein can — and has — blamed third-party designers and vendors.

The RICO complaint alleges it’s all one big — organized, if you will — scam, and how that’ll play out in court is sure to be interesting.

BTW: Shein recently tried to boost its reputation by offering influencers a tour of its factory in Guangzhou, China. It did not go over well.

Through its history, Mark Zuckerberg’s company has been defined by its phases.

There was the early-Facebook phase, which included many regrettable profile pictures, and cast Zuckerberg as a poster child for hoodied, dorm-dwelling tech founders.

Then came the phase of rapid growth — riddled with copycat product accusations, advertising challenges, the threat of TikTok, a sunscreen snafu, and intense antitrust, political, and societal backlash.

The last few years, however, have carved out a new kind of phase: an attempt to refocus the company (and media attention) elsewhere, to mixed results.

And it all started with the metaverse

Remember that? We don’t blame you if you don’t. The pivot to Meta faced intense criticism — even before Apple’s Vision Pro picked at Meta’s all-in-on-the-metaverse scabs — and forgetting about it all almost feels like the goal at the moment.

Other recent refocuses include:

• The act of refocusing: Zuckerberg’s “Year of Efficiency,” which has seen thousands of morale-crushing layoffs, has so far been a success by at least one measure, with Meta’s stock up ~150%.
• WhatsApp: Last month, Zuckerberg said the app crossed 200m monthly Business customers, up from 50m in 2020.
• Unfortunately, abs: Elon Musk recently challenged jujitsu-trained Zuckerberg to a cage match, inspired by news that Meta was planning a Twitter rival, to which Zuckerberg said, “send me location.”

The aforementioned rival, Threads, did materialize, of course — and quickly hacked its way to become the fastest-growing consumer app ever.

But big wins are hard to come by for Meta these days: Threads engagement is already tanking — last week, daily active users dipped 20%, and time spent per user plummeted 50%.

A little perspective next time you’re cursing the heavens as you sweat your way through another overheated summer day: At least you’re not a pig?

Pigs can’t sweat, leaving them particularly vulnerable to heat stress — a rough vulnerability to have in this era of record heat.

• It’s also a business vulnerability: The American swine industry loses ~$481m in annual revenue to heat stress in pigs.

Enter HotHog

A new app designed to help caregivers keep their pigs comfortable, HotHog uses localized weather data to predict animals’ internal stress levels.

As temps rise, the app prompts timely deployment of preventive cooling measures (like bonus water, fans, and misters).

There are other livestock heat-checking tools on the market, but HotHog — developed by animal scientists at Agricultural Research Service, the USDA’s in-house research agency — is the first one based on data specific to a critical subset of pigs, pregnant and breeding females.

• Overheated pigs face myriad health concerns, including reproductive issues, leaving pig populations threatened by climate change.

HotHog takes a shot at this problem with its free app — though it’s only available in English right now. The HotHog team told Axios they’re adding Spanish and Chinese translations to reach other top pig-farming markets.

Why does it matter?

HotHog can immediately be a boon to the 67k pig farms in the US, which are already struggling to keep animals comfortable amid continued worker shortages.

The industry is also crucial to the US economy — it added $57B to the nation’s GDP in 2021, according to the National Pork Producers Council.

Also, pigs are cute as hell and don’t deserve anything bad… unless you’re talking about this list of badass pig names.

Stay cool, all you Smokehouses and Crushers out there.