Several Bourbon & Boots vendors have come forward in recent weeks saying that their designs have been dropped from the company’s website and replaced with eerily similar ones.
You might recall that Rod Ford’s XCelerate Capital acquired assets from the retailer in May. At the time, Ford said he planned to bring in a new team to help grow the brand.
Ford declined to comment on the similarities last week.
The company historically relied on a network of vendors from around the country that produced the items sold on the Bourbon & Boots website, at a brick-and-mortar operation on Main Street in North Little Rock and through a partnership with Dillard’s.
You might also remember that several vendors have said they are still owed money from the old ownership, debts Ford has said he did not assume when he took control of the company.
Emily Welch, the founder of Magnolia Creative Co., which produces personalized state address stamps, said she noticed her sales slow dramatically in the past couple of weeks and went to the Bourbon & Boots website to see if her products were trending.
But Welch found that her product had been removed from the site and that new Bourbon & Boots-branded “Personalized State Return Address Stamps” were being sold.
Photos of several other items shared with Whispers by other vendors show similarities between new products on the retailer’s website and those that were formerly produced by the vendors.
Welch said she was considering her options about what to do moving forward.
“For a company with new owners that claims to value the ‘southern artist and authentic design’ well, I don’t think they are living by their mission statement,” Welch said in an email.
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