It’s a bit hard to explain how design can be bad. Much of it boils down to taste, and you can’t really argue over it. Well, OK, you can, but you ultimately need an objective frame of reference to argue taste. And that demands loads of time on your part to get educated as to what fine art is and is a whole complex story that you can rabbit-hole yourself into by reading an article we wrote about great execution but poor taste.

Anywho, in terms of more technical aspects of the execution, bad design becomes more easy to identify. The most obvious one would be misspellings or mislabeled (or even misinterpreted) designs. Think AIDS sneakers, Google Slides slippers, or Captain A’Mario. Here, you can immediately see that something is off—either it’s an allusion to something real or a sad attempt at alluding to something that just makes zero sense thematically.

Then there’s an artistic decision made that didn’t really translate well onto the fabric. Someone might have wanted a unique, scattered pattern on this bag over here, but the end result looked like the bag spent three months in a plastic bag, soaking in all the fungus from a loaf of bread someone decided to put in there as well. Same with stain marks on this hoodie—someone might’ve wanted a grease-monkey mechanic’s look, but ended up looking like someone hit the gym in a repair shop.

And then there’s just flat out not thinking it through. Imagine creating a perfectly logical design only to add an element that negates it completely. Thinking outside the box when the box is enough to think inside it is a great example. Or highlighting letters to make a point only to accidentally highlight other letters that make another point.

So, why is this a thing in the first place? Minus a lack of talent and aptitude for design, there’s a bit of a misconception about misspelled trademarks in that they don’t really avoid a lawsuit. One lawyer argued that even if a trademark is misspelled, the actual brand might have the power to take it down. If the design is too similar to the original one, it doesn't matter if it’s for a product for a different industry, the whole idea behind them is to distinguish itself and cause less confusion for customers. Besides, you can never know if YouTube will one day want to branch out into tubs and bathroom accessories with a brand like YouTub.

And if we’re talking about trademark infringements, there are those who also avoid it by creating very believable fakes. Why? Because the final price tag is significantly lower than that of the original. Of course, it also comes with its own issues, like lack of quality in the materials and how it’s executed. But if you’re strapped for cash and still want to impress your friends with designer clothes, this is a reality.

Incidentally, when we think of bootleg products, the culprit is often China. China is the biggest manufacturer of products in the world. And so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that nearly two-thirds—63.2%—of all counterfeit seizures in the world are done in China.

China is home to a lot of skilled workers who can copy and make designs with little effort. And the country’s policies against counterfeits have enough loopholes to make the industry thrive through sneaky channels and open-air wholesale markets.

But there’s also the issue of luxury companies diminishing in quality, slowly but surely becoming generic versions of otherwise expensive brands. And so when the Regular Joe can’t really distinguish between the quality of the fake and the real product—or the difference is minuscule—they end up going with the cheaper option.

And then there’s stories like that of Dapper Dan, forcing folks to at least consider for a second how bootlegs might be a necessary evil in progressing fashion.

Long story short, Dapper Dan is a Harlem fashion designer who, back in 1982, opened up a boutique that offered the look and feel of high-end brands like Gucci and Louis Vuitton, but adapted them to new monogram designs—designs that folks wanted, but these bigger brands didn’t deal in them. Decades later, this became a staple for other designers to reference, thus creating a new kind of fashion.

And, as is also in good fashion, we’d love to hear from you about anything and everything you read here today in the comment section below.

And if you need another design fail fix, look no further than this epic and hilarious design fail listicle brought to you by the Design Failures Instagram page.