Why is Tiktok flooded with videos about Chinese manufacturers of Western brands?

« Louis Vuitton and Chanel will hate me when I tell you this, » says A tap user who calls herself Lunawhile she looks together in the camera. The video « reveals the secrets behind major brands », or all kinds of details about the Chinese manufacturers who make these products.

Not only luxury brands are nailed to the pillory. In a stream of English -language films that tiktok are flooded in recent days, the ‘secrets’ of more affordable brands such as Lululemon, Tommy Hilfiger and Birkenstock are also revealed. The message is the same time and time again: you can get the same product for a fraction of the price if you order it directly from the Chinese manufacturer. Is that really the case?

Viewed in more than 12 million times Video about Lululemon ‘Luna’ mentions two Chinese manufacturers where the American sports brand would get its yoga pants. One of those manufacturers can be found on the Chinese wholesale site Alibaba and indeed offers products that look very strongly on the clothes of Lululemon in the photos. The price is, as Luna already promised, considerably lower: where Lululemon itself asks for 98 euros, you buy a yoga laying for 5.23 euros at Yiwu Xianglong Clothing. You have to order more than a thousand pieces: the minimum purchase is two copies and then a price of 24 euros each applies. With shipping costs you will soon lose almost 70 euros.

The videos seem to be primarily intended to make Americans aware of how many products come from China

That is indeed cheaper than buying at Lululemon, but again not shockingly much cheaper. Moreover, there will be no lululemon logo on it, not unimportant for many buyers with designer clothing. Anyone who does not care about brands can just as well buy a private label laying at a regular sports store.

Lululemon has a list on its website with the suppliers of its products. It contains 29 Chinese producers, but not the names that Tiktokker Luna mentions. As a consumer you also have no idea whether the Chinese suppliers she mentioned will actually deliver a leggings and to what extent it is really the same as the brand variant.

Unclear claims

Many of the information shared in the Tiktok movies is not as exciting as is suggested. For example, a video reveals a video that Nike has many shoes made in the Southeast Chinese province of Fujian-information that can also be found on the website of the sportswear brand itself.

In other videos, someone who calls themselves Wang Sen claims that luxury brands have their products made in China and then send them to France or Italy to stick a logo on it and to hang a label with « Made in France » or « Made in Italy » – something that fashion houses deny.

Wang and other Tiktokkers do not substantiate their claims in the videos. We see a factory or shed and we see a designer bag, but we do not see that those designer bags are put together there and Masse. The question is whether luxury brands need it: last year it was already known that handbags from Dior and Giorgio Armani are put together by Chinese under dangerous circumstances, but then in sweatshops in Italy itself.

Host war

The sudden rise of the videos cannot be seen separately from the towering taxes that US President Donald Trump has set goods from China. In that sense, the call to American consumers to order directly from Chinese manufacturers is remarkable: the levies also apply to that. The exception of the import levy that first consisted of small packages from web stores that go directly to consumers will be canceled in the US next month.

The purpose of the videos with their nationalist tone seems to be something else: make Americans aware of how many products come from China. In addition, the claims about luxury brands seem intended to show that high -quality products are also made in China.

The trade war has also created a chaotic context, in which sellers of counterfeit products and ‘Dupes’ (Products that expressly resemble a popular article as much as possible, but are emphatically offered as an affordable alternative) smell an opportunity.

This is how bags seller Wang presents a calculation About the Birkin bag from Hermès. It costs around $ 1,400 to make, he says: $ 600 for work in France, $ 450 for the leather, $ 150 for the locks and so on some costs. Hermès asks at least ten thousand euros for the sought -after bag, which is only for sale on invitation. Wang states in its factory with the same materials that it can make a comparable quality bag for a thousand dollars. « If you don’t care about the logo, you can just buy one of us, » he says.

Harmful to luxury brands

In the long term, these videos can be harmful to luxury brands, Fabio Becheri thinks. « The narrative that these videos promote can change how people look at the value of a product, » writes the former Gucci employee on LinkedIn. Everyone was always able to think that a Birkin bag does not cost ten thousand euros to produce, but enough people had that extra cost for the status that a brand name represents. If that changes, fashion houses will certainly get into trouble. « Don’t underestimate this. »

The role of Tiktok in spreading the films is at least striking: the United States wants the Chinese owner bytedance to sell the American version of the app, precisely for fear of influencing China of the American public. Tiktok has always denied that it can be borrowed for that, but now offers ample job to promote Made in China.

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