Real Life Boosters Speak Out: Is Stealing From Brands Survival Or Street Justice? | TSR Investigates

Added: 2026-05-21

[00:00:00]Who's then baddies where y'all at? Where are the boosters?

[00:00:04]What's a booster? Somebody that steal clothes from a store and sell it at a discount price.

[00:00:08]>> It's like community service. 20s, 50s, popping tags.

[00:00:12]>> They take my and sell it cuz they're low-class urban Big brands have been stealing designs from black people and selling as their own for decades.

[00:00:23]>> It really caught me off guard.

[00:00:25]>> But the ultimate lick back? You've been boosting for 7 years. Everything I do that I do for a reason.

[00:00:30]>> Real life boosters stepping into the shade room. For like half the price.

[00:00:34]Yeah, everything's half price. Is it stealing or survival? The Shade Room with a new movie, I love boosters, we're getting down to it. This is a special TSR investigates. Let's just call her Becky the booster. We're masking her identity, but she says it's simple, let her cook so we can get our stuff on the low. So you are the plug.

[00:00:56]>> Any customers or any clients that I had, it was first service.

[00:01:00]First service. You know, if they had the means to afford what they wanted, it was just even better for them to get it for a deal price. And you better not ask no questions either. Storm rising from Atlanta, she knows tea. I had a booster back in the day, like back in the day.

[00:01:15]She was great. You give her $100, baby she'll bring you back 10 outfits.

[00:01:19]>> Brenisha Alexander clocking the deals, too.

[00:01:22]>> Don't ask, don't tell. I feel like, you know, supporting other business and where you got it is not my business.

[00:01:28]It's what Corvette and her crew, the Velvet Ganger, doing in the new movie, I love boosters, where this fashion mogul, Kristy Smith, is accused of profiting from designs stolen from street culture and black designers. It's a familiar trend, isn't it? It really caught me off guard.

[00:01:46]>> Take Jada Ellis for example. I wanted to incorporate my love for streetwear and my love for like high fashion and see what I could create.

[00:01:54]>> 2023, Ellis took her brand JL Designs to the next level. This design I created back in or launched in 2023, um was the thing that catapulted my business and that's when things started to take off for my brand.

[00:02:08]>> Until she looked down at her phone one day and everything changed. At one point I just started getting sent a lot of screenshots of these replicas that were out there. But when I saw it was brands that I actually liked, I was like, "Wow, like I can't believe they're really taking my stuff."

[00:02:23]>> She took her frustrations to TikTok. And I recently found out that the design got stolen >> and even to a lawyer who told her that clothing designs are hard to protect when it comes to intellectual property laws. And it is true. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, quote, "Clothing is considered a useful article rather than purely artistic work, creating a legal hurdle to prove that a design is distinct from its functional purpose."

[00:02:53]Kristy Smith stole my design. What?

[00:02:55]Illegally, I think that there should be more protection. I feel like almost every other industry has so much protection when it comes to, you know, their IP and the things that they create.

[00:03:05]>> major clothing brands that were copying Ellis's designs were reselling them for a fraction of what she was selling them for. It felt like a missed opportunity for my brand. Seeing people take my design, market it, and sell it to their audience of millions of people, selling my design inside of their physical stores all, you know, across America, um it showed me that, okay, well, I have to step things up.

[00:03:29]>> It's become something that got out of hand, if you ask me. Becky the Booster, she told us that it is why she feels like boosting is taking back what's already ours. She says that in her line of work, it's not only her way of surviving, but a way that she looks out for her people.

[00:03:46]>> [music] >> If she stole your design, we got to get it back for that. I have a plan.

[00:03:50]Do you ever feel bad about it? No.

[00:03:52]I don't feel bad about it. If I had to make the choice to do it again, I would.

[00:03:56]>> And above all, for her children. Well, see I have three kids to take care of, so at the end of the day, I needed to make my money by all means necessary.

[00:04:04]>> Did they ever take you to jail? They did. Caught me with $2,700 worth of merchandise in one duffel bag leaving the store. Hit me with three grand larcenies, and I took a plea. They dropped one two and misdemeanor. They convicted me of two. You know I know I would never have it in me to do the same thing. It's like, yes. Like, in another life.

[00:04:28]That's the answer.

[00:04:29]>> [clears throat] >> What would you like to see happen in the future to protect you? Accountability.

[00:04:34]I think that brands should honestly just collaborate with like the smaller brands, these up-and-coming designers. I think that people would actually support the brands way more if they just reached out and constantly collaborated, did did small collections, or different things like that. And pay the designers what they were worth for these collaborations. Something definitely needs to happen. Something needs to shift.

[00:04:59]>> Consumers, they agree and say there's room for everyone.

[00:05:02]>> So, I think once we understand that we are the ones that make the brands, it'll change a lot for us. And it's going to allow us to stand up and take our power back on everything that they have stolen from us. So, it's deeper than the clothes. And you can watch Corvette and her fellow boosters take their power back when I love boosters that hits theaters May 22nd because after all, it is community service.

[00:05:27]And I feel like I should have it all.

[00:05:30]Just want to take it all home, eat it up, and shoot it out my eyes.

[00:05:35]I feel like give it to me.

[00:05:37]It's mine anyway.

[00:05:39]That is such a good answer.

[00:05:44]What's a booster?

[00:05:45]>> Somebody that steal clothes from a store and sell at a discount price. It's like community service.

[00:05:51]I call it triple L. Fashion forward philanthropy.

[00:05:58]I know how to spell philanthropy.

[00:05:59]Branding, though.

[00:06:01]Together, we empty out every single Metro Designer in the Bay Area. It's the Velvet Gang. They're boosting from my stores. It's the filthiest place we exist.

[00:06:09]They take my and sell it as their low-class urban this.

[00:06:16]With all due respect to urban I'll give it to you. You boosters are creative.

[00:06:33]You okay? HELP.

[00:06:38]WOO!

[00:06:39]WOO!