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Brand partnerships can add excitement to the consumer market, allowing brands to reach a new audience segment and create hype. Most recently, creating this hype is Adidas and Gucci who have collaborated to create an umbrella that cannot quite be used in the rain. The umbrella, which carries a price tag of RMB11,100 (SG$2,277) raised questions on its use in China when it was unveiled to be used for shading from the sun and for decorative purposes – not to be used in the rain, given it isn’t water proof.
One netizen said, “This umbrella is amazing. In less than one month, you can buy the same waterproof umbrella with better quality from micro enterprises." Another commented, “They can steal your money but still give you a useless umbrella in return."
https://twitter.com/cubist_pg/status/1525057625976877056
Since the ridicule, Gucci also renamed the product from on its China website from 雨伞 (rain umbrella) to 伞 (umbrella). On its website, Gucci also used the word “sun umbrella” to avoid further confusion.
The umbrella is part of the upcoming Adidas x Gucci collection, where it offers an array of apparel aimed at bringing back nostalgia to sports apparel. The collection is slated to be dropped on 7 June. The brands first confirmed the collaboration in February this year saying that the partnership combines the heritage and the creative codes of both brands.
Another luxury brand to have raised questions on its product recently was Balenciaga which unveiled a new line of footwear that looks "fully destroyed".
The limited-edition footwear full of rips and dirt costs around US$1,850, and costs twice as much as its standard Paris High Top Sneaker priced around US$625. The roughed up sneakers, which look like a beat-up Converse, and some have questioned if the product launch is simply a “social experiment”, while others have labelled the sneakers as "poverty-chic pieces” where “unchecked capitalism is mind-boggling”.
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