Over the weekend, The New York Times took a look inside of China's malls, which are filled with brands that want to maintain the image that they are truly international fare. Chinese clothing brands want so badly to sound foreign that they've been choosing non-Chinese names to give off the impression that they aren't Chinese. In the malls throughout the country, very few brands actually use Chinese characters at all in an effort to attract customers who flat-out refuse to buy anything from a Chinese brand. Except most of these brands are still Chinese, they just sound foreign. So whatever.
There are sneaker brands Adidos, Hike, Cnoverse and Fuma. Classic BS knock-off branding. Or how about sportswear brand Clio Coddle, which uses a tiny green crocodile as its logo? Then there's Chrisdien Deny, which has a look and feel much like Christian Dior and even uses the same font. Yet, when contacted, the brand said it has "never heard" of Christian Dior (even though it has dozens of stores throughout China). LIKELY STORY, CHRISDIEN DENY.
As anyone who has bought knock-off goods from China and waited three weeks for it to show up probably knows, this is sort of how the world works in China. Brands try to knock-off the giants of the business to garner some success. Either that, or they make their names as offensive as possible to attract attention, like Helen Keller sunglasses. The company website has a huge biography of Helen Keller, but doesn't even mention the vital fact of Keller's life: the fact that she was blind and deaf. A company rep even said that her blindness has nothing to do with "the spirit of the brand." Are you fucking kidding me? They're sunglasses, which help keep you from going blind, which is directly related to Helen Keller, which is directly related to the spirit of the name of the brand. This is so egregious that I'm almost impressed. Almost.
