ENHYPEN member Sunghoon’s official merchandise has come under scrutiny, as fans of TXT’s Yeonjun have raised plagiarism concerns.
On August 24, HYBE’s official merchandise account, HYBE MERCH, shared images of an "Artist-Made Collection" featuring ENHYPEN members who participated in the design process.
Among them, Sunghoon personally contributed to a hoodie zip-up and a figure set. However, fans noticed that the figure design closely resembled Yeonjun’s solo mixtape 'GGUM' figure, released last September, sparking criticism online.
Yeonjun's fans quickly voiced their concerns and left comments such as "It looks exactly like the GGUM figure," "Let's respect professional ethics," "This is literally copied," "Don't steal, respect originality and copyright," and "That's the result of Yeonjun's hard work."
Earlier, ENHYPEN’s official YouTube channel posted a behind-the-scenes video titled 'Artist-Made Collection by ENHYPEN – Making of Log: SUNGHOON,' showing Sunghoon’s design process. In the video, he explained, "I thought a figure or keyring would look cute. I carry a lot of dolls, so I wanted something like that. If it’s a figure, it should show the whole character; if it’s a doll, maybe just the face."
Sunghoon ultimately decided on a figure, considering outfit choices inspired by his music video looks and personal style. He sketched designs featuring boxing gloves from a previous music video and a leather jacket outfit he often wears. When reviewing the figure prototypes, he selected the leather jacket version with a dog-tag keyring, noting it would be better to display it standing rather than hanging.
He described his vision for the figures, "You can always have a 1/18 Sunghoon figure keyring with you. I picked my favorite outfit and prepared two contrasting versions for variety."
However, fans point out that the version with the music video gloves was omitted in the final sample, and the released figure ended up wearing a hoodie similar to Yeonjun’s 'GGUM' figure design. The pose, hoodie style, and facial proportions closely resemble Yeonjun’s figure, even though the original illustrator of 'GGUM,' SLINKY (Lee Seung Hoon), was not involved in Sunghoon’s merchandise.
Meanwhile, TXT recently announced that all members renewed their contracts during a concert and are set to meet fans worldwide with their 'ACT: TOMORROW' world tour.
SEE ALSO: ENHYPEN donate 100 million KRW (~68,000 USD) to flood recovery efforts in the Philippines
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