TV Schedule

Do knockoffs help Designers?


  3. jcharney
  4. related topics
Ahh, the piracy paradox: For the industry to keep growing, customers must like this year’s designs, but they must also become dissatisfied with them, so that they’ll buy next year’s. In fashion, knockoffs enable designs and styles to move quickly from early adopters to the masses.

Since no one cool wants to keep wearing something after everybody else is wearing it, the copying of designs helps fuel the incessant demand for something new.
jcharney

5 responses // Do knockoffs help Designers?

  • For the fashion industry to succeed they must foster a consistant and cyclical cycle of dissatisfaction, not just with their own product but in consumers insecurity with themselves, thus this unachievable quest to be this notion of "cool" or "trendy". Anyone who buys into this clut of consumerism is a sheep ... I mean a reliable customer.
    HowieGreen
  • http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/books/21kaku.html
    Been there, done that, read the book
    Been there, done that, read the book
    If you care about this topic, you might enjoy reading this book, called "Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster." In it, Dana Thomas recounts the rise and fall of several luxury brands, and spends the last couple of chapters talking about the booming business of knock-offs.

    I was expecting it to be a little more gossipy, although it was a baseless expectation, but it was super informative. I'm pretty sure she meant for me to feel shame at the end about my handbag addiction, and it didn't quite work that way. It made me want to double my efforts to find the perfect, super-pricey, authentic designer bag.
    AmandaZee
  • http://urbncounterfeiters.blogspot.com/
    Urbn Counterfeiters: the Blog
    Urbn Counterfeiters: the Blog
    Do knockoffs help designers? The short answer is NO.
    jennatar
  • They don't help! But do they hurt? People buy these bags because they follow trends (the sheepeople) even though the original intention of the target consumer for these brands are people who want to be unique and individual looking for that super-pricey "perfect authentic bag" (amandazee). That's why these brands continue to sell those pricey bags and continue to make new ones and the people that can afford them are aon top of the trends or are themselves the trends and the sheepeople follow in herds. On second thought maybe knock-offs do help buy fueling demand for new innovative and unique designs providing allure which fuels a growing industry employing more & producing more. And as long as the sheepeople keep following I think knock-offs will remain neutral or help, yes some companies may falter due to intended consumers becoming critical of brands mainstream image but it will only be due to their lack of innovation. The industry should thrive in this atmosphere.
    BabyRooFiend
  • Hand bags. . . .

    *rests head on hand and has glazed look in his eyes.
    CarlosIsDown

Add your response

Login/Registration is required to add a response.