SJS
Company went downhill
As a happy customer of SoCo for many years, and even subscriber on some of their social media accounts, I’ve purchased a lot from this company. I love how they are a woman-owned and run business. The pads are made of good quality materials that are hard to find anywhere else, and that’s what initially kept me coming back for more. Unfortunately, Soco often uses generative AI, even after receiving criticism from other customers. Contrary to the ethics of this company to be eco friendly, generative AI is well-known at this point to be harmful to the environment, not including the multitude of other reasons why it shouldn’t be used excessively. I’m talking every “score thread” post in their VIP group was made with gen AI, when you could easily just put text on a background in Canva. A lot of the pad prints themselves are AI generated and not explicitly labeled as such. You need to look for the “no AI” tag, as if that is the standard. If you guys boast about being handmade and supporting local artists, then go all in. Generative AI steals from local communities and artists. They got too focused on releasing new prints every single week and it’s not exciting anymore. Not only that, but the wet bags I got have a label that says “made in china”. Very confusing. Sadly, I think I will stop supporting this shop, unless the AI stuff completely stops, and the owner starts being transparent about manufacturing.
Response from socostudioshop.comOct 12, 2026
First, thank you so much for supporting SoCo and being a subscriber. We truly appreciate your loyalty and are happy to hear that you've loved the quality of our pads. I completely understand that transparency, sustainability, and supporting artists are important to you. We appreciate you sharing your concerns about AI-generated designs and how they're labeled. We know everyone has different feelings about AI, and we respect that. In the past several months, only one Score Thread has been Ai generated. The rest have been made using Canva, like you suggested. It does use Clip Art but is thoughtfully put together using each graphic. As far as manufacturing goes, our cloth pads are handmade with care, but some of our accessories are manufactured differently. I can understand how seeing a Made in China label might raise questions, and we certainly don't want anyone feeling misled about our products. We also hear your concerns about the frequency of our new releases. We love bringing fresh prints and options to ya'll, but we understand that not everyone feels the same way about the direction of our collections. It genuinely makes us sad to hear that you're considering leaving SoCo after being part of our community for so long. We never want our customers to feel that their concerns aren't being heard. Thank you again for your years of support and for taking the time to share your thoughts with us.