A clothing brand owner based in California publicly accused a major country singer of using her brand and name to market his new album without her consent, allegedly putting out clothing of his own. Multiple cease and desist letters have been sent, the owner said, to no response.
The owner is Brooke Buckman, who owns “Deep Blue.,” a sustainable streetwear brand that removes plastic from the ocean and produces clothes made from 100% cotton. The Deep Blue. account mostly features their products and efforts to clear the ocean from waste, but the clip attached above stood out for its virality. It garnered 304,800 views, 22,500 likes, and close to 600 comments.
The California woman directly accused country singer Ernest of using her brand and name for his merchandise promoting his new album. It is coincidentally named Deep Blue. According to her, the man has been ignoring her company’s cease and desist letters.
An Unfruitful Negotiation
It all started back in January 2026, when Earnest, as per Brooke, reached out to them, informing the brand that his new album was to be called Deep Blue. He added, as shown in screenshotted DMs, that he had bought some of her merch and wanted to do a collab. He was thinking about possibly contributing to removing ocean plastic for his album release.
In the end, however, things didn’t work out. Brooke said, “I got into contact with his manager and with his attorney. After many months of back and forth and lots of time and resources invested into this collab, we basically could not come to an agreement on how we would structure this.”
She was told that the collab would be a “losing venture” for Ernest, as shown in an email. Then, the country singer’s team asked Brooke if they could purchase her design instead. She declined.
‘Blatant Trademark Infringement’
However, about a month after the email was sent, Brooke came across multiple Instagram posts. They showed Deep Blue album merch, including a T-shirt and a hoodie with the name “Deep Blue” printed. The California woman compared Earnest’s products with the ones she designed for him. She, however, focused her attention on a sweatshirt.
Brooke read in the sweatshirt’s description that the clothing item was a cotton/polyester blend piece. The website information detailed that microplastics and contaminants are ever-present in marine ecosystems. Still, the clothing brand owner pointed out that polyester is a synthetic fabric.
“Synthetic textiles are the number one source of ocean microplastic pollution,” Brooke explained. “This is the exact reason why I told them I would not sell them the design. They did not have the authorization to use my name on their products, as I did not want to be affiliated with greenwashing.”
The California woman ended up calling this “blatant trademark infringement.”
California Reactions
The video sparked mulitple responses, with some viewers criticizing Brooke for her accusation. One said, “It’s a song, it’s not that deep.” Another one commented, “I don’t think you can trademark those words since they are common.”
However, many users pointed out that the issue was the Deep Blue branding in apparel. In that case, Brooke does own the trademark. One wrote, “Charging $100 for a green-washed hoodie that was made in China with a design that was stolen from an independent company is wild.” Another one added, “That’s absolutely foul.”
Ernest has since issued a response following the backlash. He asked his audience to buy Brooke’s merch, denied the accusation that he had stolen her designs, and broadly and quickly addressed the fast fashion part of her video.
