I wrote in a previous post about Clio Coddle, a rip off of Crocodile which itself is probably a rip off of famous brand Lacoste.
In a recent trip through Changsha in Hunan Province (湖南长沙) I stumbled across this shop, only some few hundred metres away from the Clio Coddle itself. I didn’t see a Crocodile or Lacoste in the vicinity however. I suppose by now i’m hardly surprised, though it does amaze me how shoppers can fall for such blatant rip offs unless, that is, they don’t care about branding at all – in which case what’s the point to copy? I do wonder.
The english (NuoManDiEYu) is basically Chinese pinyin for “The Romantic Crocodile” (诺曼的鳄鱼). Notice the logo is also a crocodile, pointing in the same direction as that of Clio Coddle’s.
Not far from NuoManDiEYu I noticed Kobbo. Looks disturbingly similar to Italian clothing company Kappa, which had an official store only some 50 metres away. Kappa, who also own the Robe di Kappa brand, were a little known brand in China until brought into China in 2006 by the China Dongxiang Group. Now listed on the stock exchange, owner Chen Yihong is now amongst the 50 richest men in China.
I don’t suppose Kobbo would ever get that far.
