Just a few hours ago, Samsung unveiled its Galaxy A8s smartphone with an Infinity-O display in China. The company also proudly announced on stage that it is partnering with Supreme to open a "seven-story flagship store in Beijing", although it didn"t reveal what products will be sold there. While many perceived that Samsung was collaborating with the popular American clothing brand - due to the way in which the announcement was made -, it has now been revealed that the Korean company is actually partnering with a cheap knock-off brand "Supreme Italia".
.jpg){kind=link}
Hypebeast reports that the "Supreme" CEOs that were invited on stage are actually executives of Supreme Italia - which had a legal row with Supreme NYC in Italy that it won. As the CEOs boasted how they were opening a new flagship store in China and having its first runway show at the Mercedes-Benz Cultural Center in Shanghai next year, viewers were led to believe that Samsung was partnering with the American brand.
Clearly agitated by the hype this event generated for the knock-off brand, Supreme NYC has issued the following statement:
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 organization.
It is interesting to note that Samsung did try to clarify that it was partnering with Supreme Italia, with The Verge reporting that the company"s digital marketing manager Leo Lau stated in a now-deleted Weibo post that:
We are collaborating with Supreme Italia, not Supreme NYC. Supreme NYC has no sales and marketing authorization in China, but Supreme Italia has obtained product sales and market authorizations in the Asia Pacific region (except Japan).
It is currently unclear as to whether Samsung intentionally tried to mislead the public or not, but the blunder has certainly presented the company in a negative light. We"ll let you know as the situation develops.
Source: Hypebeast