What Meonte the Goat’s Story Tells Us About Fashion, Theft, and Trade Policy

C. Aigner Ellis
6 hours ago
2 min read

You ever scroll past something on IG and feel it hit you in the chest?

That’s what happened when I came across a post from designer @meontethegoat. In his pinned video, he’s standing in a mall — the same one where he once wore his now-signature pants for the first time — and staring at a rack full of ripoffs. A big-box brand had copied his exact design, bar for bar, and now they’re out here selling it like it’s theirs. No credit. No check. Just the usual: “Shut up and be flattered.”

He wasn’t.

“It’s not flattering, and it won’t be until somebody pays me,” he says in the video. And listen, that part? Whew.

It reminded me of something I wrote in Rainbow Soul: Creativity without protection is trauma waiting to happen.Because when you’re Black, queer, and building from the ground up — the world doesn’t just steal from you. It gaslights you for caring.

Rainbow Soul: A Memoir by Anye Elite (Presale)

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Meonte’s video wasn’t just a vent. It was a breakdown — of mental health, of financial pressure, of being tired of people telling you to “just keep going” while they’re literally profiting off your pain.

And while I’ve never had my designs stolen (mostly because I can’t draw a straight line), I’ve been there. That feeling of doing all the work and watching someone else scoop the spotlight or the check. It’s exhausting.

Now, there’s a conversation to be had about Trump-era tariffs and whether they might’ve stopped some of this — making it harder for foreign factories to undercut small designers like Meonte. And while I ain’t rushing to co-sign 45 on anything, I can admit policy like that hits different when you’re the one being copied.

But this ain’t about politics. It’s about people.

It’s about a Black queer creator being forced to watch his business get duplicated and devalued — all while people in his comments blame him for not being rich enough to fight back.

So here’s what we can do:

🎥 Watch Episode 1 of Scroll With Your Boy — where I talk more about Meonte’s story and the heavy load creators carry.