An American firm has been accused of cashing in on the Grenfell Tower tragedy by selling counterfeit t-shirts at double the price without giving any money to charity.
San Francisco firm RedBubble is selling almost identical designs to the now-famous Grenfell t-shirt design created by Londoner Charlie Crockett, 34, in the aftermath of the fire.
After witnessing the horror firsthand, Charlie felt compelled to do something so he reworked one of his creations intended for popstar Rita Ora to raise money for survivors of the disaster.
Pictured: Charlie Crocketts (left), 34, came up with the iconic Grenfell t-shirt design in the days following the disaster in June and began selling clothes to raise money for survivors. But an American company has been imitating the design for almost double the price (right) with the proceeds purely for profit
But he quickly realised a US company had created a number of strikingly similar motifs and were selling them for up to £25, more than double the cost of one of his shirts at £10 each.
MailOnline can reveal the profits of RedBubble’s clothes are not going to charity or to the survivors of the fire which claimed up to 80 lives.
Mr Crockett and others filed a cease and desist notice to stop the firm using the designs last month but haven’t received a response.
A customer who bought one of the tops from the overseas company without realising complained and received a full refund.
But bizarrely RedBubble asked her to give the tee away to charity.
The real deal: Charlie Crocker was creating clothes for Rita Ora around the time of the Grenfell tragedy and tweaked the design to make the now iconic logo which has been worn by Stormzy and Simon Cowell
Mr Crockett described the firm’s decision to cash in on the disaster as ‘distasteful’.
‘It doesn’t seem like there are any morals involved here, it’s just about making money,’ he said.
‘They seem to have gone to a lot of effort on taking out Google adverts, it’s not a nice way to make a living.’
An estimated 80 people died in June after a fire tore through the 42-storey block on the Lancaster West Estate in North Kensington, London.
Counterfeit: RedBubble and Love and Supply has been using similar creations including the one above with a picture of the tower which Mr Crockett said they wouldn’t use as it was ‘distasteful’ in light of what happened
Mr Crockett was there on the morning when the tragedy occurred and said he can remember hearing screams and cries from those inside as the police called for those outside to ‘stay back’.
‘My mum called me at 3.30am in the morning and I jumped on my bike because I couldn’t get through to my sister who lives nearby.
‘I tried to get as closed as I could and I panicked, you couldn’t get very close because there were loads of fire engines and police shouting to stay back.
‘All I saw was bellowing smoke and bright orange from the flames. Luckily my sister and her family had been evacuated but with the adrenaline of it all I couldn’t sleep for ages.’
In the days that followed, Mr Crockett said he felt compelled to do something to help after seeing the incident turn the neighbourhood he grew up in upside down.
Anger: Twitter users have contacted RedBubble asking them to take down the fake designs but have received no replies
‘I was working with Rita Ora’s stylist before Grenfell for some t-shirts for her dancers and upcoming tour.
‘I just swapped the word out on the t-shirts for Grenfell and it seemed to work well,’ Mr Crockett said.
Charlie came up with the idea of printing clothing as way to raise much-needed funds for the survivors of the atrocity which killed an estimated 80 people in June in the days following the disaster.
His now world-famous design – showing the words GRENFELL embossed on a tube sign – has now been worn by the likes of Stormzy, Rita Ora and Cara Delevingne.
Mr Crockett said: ‘Isn’t there a better way of making money? I don’t think those people care so much.
‘There are lots of betters ways in this world to get rich without selling counterfeit charity t-shirts, it’s pretty low.’