Claire’s Sues Capitol Region Content Creator for Defamation
The content creator ‘Donny Skipper’ is being sued by Claire’s for defamation after they say he made false claims about working for the company.
A local social media content creator is being sued by Claire’s for defamation and trademark infringement for posts made claiming he was fired from the company — among others.
Cooper Wright — who is known by his account name “Donny Skipper” — was sued by the Claire’s Essentials LLC for at least seven social media posts critical of the company.
In these since deleted posts, Wright claimed that he had been fired by the company for social media posts criticizing the government, showed Claire’s merchandise that depicts U.S. President Donald Trump and shows correspondence between him and representatives of Claire’s. Some of the videos appeared to be filmed at the closed Claire’s location in the Wilton Mall.
In addition, on the LinkedIn profile for the fictious Donny Skipper, the documents allege Wright claimed that he had worked at Claire’s since 2022 at their Saratoga Springs and Clifton Park locations.
All of this, according to the lawsuit filed Oct. 7 in federal court, was fake.
“[Wright]’s actions are willful and in bad faith,” The lawsuit states “At all times relevant hereto, [Wright] knew that the content of his social media posts regarding Claire’s was false and continued to perpetuate his false narrative with such knowledge. At all times, [Wright] acted with a reckless disregard for the truth.”
Wright, who lives in Washington County, mainly posts about tenant rights, commentary on political events and issues related to affordability. In a statement to the Albany Times Union, Wright claims that the posts were satire and sought to bring attention to community job losses and the impact of private equity. He said that it was never his intention to mislead or harm the company.
Despite this, Claire’s alleges that Wright’s videos had a tangible impact on their marketing. They claim that in response to Write’s claims, their Instagram post about a recent Halloween product launch, their comment section with negative comments repeating claims made by Wright. The post — which is still on Instagram — has about 500 comments compared to others which typically garner less than 100.
As for the posts which triggered the lawsuit, those have since been deleted and as of Oct. 29, 2025 there is no mention of Claire’s on any of the ‘DonnySkipper’ accounts.
Claire’s is based in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. In August 2025, the company filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protections and announced that over 200 stores would close as a result of bankruptcy. The next month, the company was bought out by private equity firm Ames Watson. The firm also has a controlling stake in companies such as Lids and Champion.
Although the Claire’s in Wilton Mall wasn’t on the initial closure list, things changed as the store was seen with its shutters down and lights off at the time of publication. The store also doesn’t appear on the Store Locator function of their website.
As for their political activities, while Claire’s used to employ lobbyists from the Greenberg Traurig firm, they terminated their use of the firm of 2022. The last time they were listed as lobbying on any issue, however, was in 2020 when the firm reported that they monitored cosmetic regulation and several bills related to COVID-19 on behalf of the company.