Everything
What a mess. During a conference in China this week, Samsung announced the launch of its Galaxy A8s smartphone, with the Chinese subsidiary taking the opportunity to announce a collaboration with “Supreme”. Along with teasing the opening of a flagship in Beijing as well as participating in a Mercedes-Benz runway show, fans and the media was expectedly hyped for what could have been an awesome collaboration.
What was shared across social media platform ‘Weibo’, soon became viral when it was reported that the tech giant’s digital marketing manager Leo Lau revealed the collaboration was with competitor and counterfeit brand of the US street label, Supreme Italia.
In a post that now appears to have been deleted, Lau wrote on his Weibo account, “The brand we are collaborating with is Supreme Italia, not Supreme US. Supreme US doesn’t have the authorisation to sell and market in China. Whereas the Italian brand got the APAC (except Japan) product retail and marketing authorisation.”
While it is considered a legal partnership, it was not taken well with the original brand and it fans. NYC’s Supreme responded to reports via its Instagram Stories, saying: “Supreme is not working with Samsung, opening a flagship location in Beijing or participating in a Mercedes-Benz runway show. These claims are blatantly false and propagated by a counterfeit organisation.”
Causing quite a stir around the globe it seems that Samsung China has cold feet, posting an official statement via social media.
“Recently, Samsung Electronics announced at the launch of the Galaxy A8s that it will cooperate with Supreme Italia in the Chinese market. We are currently reevaluating this cooperation and we deeply regret the inconvenience caused.”
With the controversial collaboration now in hot water, stay tuned for any further info.
