Clothing Firm Pirated Itself... And It Worked Great
from the competing-in-the-market dept
As fashion designers in the US are, once again, pushing for a misguided new "fashion copyright," it's worth remembering that studies have repeatedly shown that knock off fashions are what help make the fashion industry so successful. They serve a few different purposes. They make the authentic versions appear more valuable (who would knockoff an unpopular fashion?). They help differentiate the market by letting the clothes diffuse to the lower end that would never buy the designer level clothes, and they push designers to keep innovating each year, because they want to keep coming out with something new to stay ahead of the counterfeiters.Now, it appears that at least one clothing designer decided to use these facts to its own advantage. ReallyEvilCanine writes in to let us know how a South African t-shirt designer made its own counterfeit line of t-shirts and used that to boost the perception of the original line, while also being able to differentiate and sell into different markets:
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Filed Under: clothing, counterfeit, love jovi, luv jovi, south africa
Companies: love jovi
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Question
How long before that term gets trademarked?
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A. I'm confused. I've been accused of plenty of stuff, but being a shill? I honestly have to wonder which side of the copyright debate you would think I'm "shilling" for?
B. Do you honestly believe anyone would pay for the idiotic shit I write? If you know someone who would, I'd love to speak to them...
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since when???
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It's so simple...
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Re: It's so simple...
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armani has been doing this for years
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that's good and all..
Example: Henckels Knives...
They are awesome kitchen cutlery. But they were also rather expensive. Til they got tired of the knockoffs making money off their name.
So they decided to make money off their own name by launching a similarly named low end company.
My parents saw henckels knives int he store one day for what they thought was an awesome price and immediately got them for me as a present. As it turns out, they were crap, and WAY overpriced crap.
So you know what? Ever since Henckels decided to cannibalize their own brand recognition in order to eek out a few more percents of profit margin, I have decided they are a shit company and instead of telling everyone how great their knives are, I warn people to stay away lest they get ripped off by paying too much money for cheap crap knives.
I think the move to cannibalize your reputation is an incredibly short sighted move that ultimately leads to rapid departure from the market.
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Re: that's good and all..
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J. A. Henckels has had multiple lines for decades. Anyone dumb enough to spend $15 on a 14" chef's knife which normally costs $200 really, really ought to know that something is amiss. Either that person is knowingly buying stolen goods or pirated merchandise, and either way has no expectation of the quality that the 5-star JAH knife line costs.
If your parents ever see Shen knives for under $80 a pop, tell them to avoid those, too. Same goes for that $700 Cadillac over at the dealer around the corner.
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