Is Fortnite getting lazy with item shop skin designs?

Epic Games released its 1000th skin in Fortnite yesterday, but fans weren't excited about the Fortnite Etheria skin despite this monumental moment.

The skin is of a blue rarity and can be purchased from the item shop for 1200 V-Bucks. Players also can buy her pickaxe separately for another 800 V-Bucks.

What has vexed fans is that the Fortnite Etheria skin looks like a straightforward remake of the Ember skin. They've both got the same stance and a very similar visual effect. It isn't reactive at all, but the cosmetic does come with a transparent backbling.

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Fortnite and its item shop skin designs

The Fortnite Etheria skin is very similar to the Ember skin from Chapter 1 Season 8 (Image via r/FortniteBR: u/DarkKnight1498, Reddit)

When the skin went live, a few fans on Reddit noted that it resembled Ember from Chapter 1 Season 8 a lot. Both are even of elven origin.

Surprisingly enough, they've got the same stance, which isn't the first time fans have had such a feeling about the Fortnite item shop skins.

The upcoming Catwoman skin also looks like a bland remake of the old Catwoman skin with no definite changes. There is barely any difference between the two skins, which shows a lack of effort on the developer's part regarding skin designs.

On top of that, previously, there were skins in the Fortnite item shop related to the storyline. However, currently, these skins are there with no correlation to the plot. Some of these cosmetics look good, yes, and there's no denying that. But then again, it'd be better if they were related to the storyline in some way.

YouTuber TaborHill had the same thing to say about the Fortnite Etheria skin. People on Reddit have gone on to say that it is slightly lackluster for a cosmetic supposed to be the 1000th skin in Fortnite.

That being said, a majority of the fans do like this skin.

Readers, however, need to note that the Etheria skin is designed by an individual from the Fortnite community itself. Understandably, they used the assets from the Ember skin, but it's also not terrible.

When it comes to the Fortnite item shop, there's a slight drop in the quality of the skins. Most offerings these days are the ones vaulted previously.

Yes, they do have their fresh batch of skins, but they're primarily collaborations. For example, the Batman skins are nice, but they're collaborations.

The community still likes the Fortnite Etheria skin (Image via r/FortniteBR, Reddit)

Knights of the Food Court was the first original bundle seen in a while, but that's about it. The Medusa skin bundle is yet to make it to the Fortnite item shop.

The community has also gone on to label the Fortnite Etheria skin as bland (Image via r/ForntiteBR, Reddit)

While bringing back these older skins shows promise in terms of revenue, it does ruin their rare status in the game. It's still tricky to comment on the Fortnite item shop skin designs, but the community would prefer some more original skins at this point.

Note: Some views in this article reflect the opinions of the writer.