Luxury fashion from China: Fakes manufacturers mix in the trade war

The trade war between the USA and China has reached the video portal Tiktok. Chinese influencers have been organizing a large -scale maneuver against the western fashion industry for days.

A flood of videos claims that luxury brands such as Hermès, Louis Vuitton and Co. would produce cheap in China and then sell much more expensive in the USA and Europe. The same applies to Nike shoes, thermos bottles from Stanley and many other products.

For this purpose, for example, the companies would replace the “Made in China” origin label with “Made in France” or “Made in Italy” and attach their logo on the garment, accessory or product.

The simple story catches. Videos with these and similar claims are viewed millions of times and divided in many ways. It is striking how many accounts the videos of the Chinese creators are uncritically and often even with applause. What is true and what propaganda or marketing mesh is hardly interested.

The flood of Prochinese and anti -American contributions to social media shows: In the trade war between the USA and China, which is now apparently also online, China currently has the upper hand.

The background to this new development is that the two states have been covering each other with ever new retaliation tariffs for days. Since Thursday last week, the US tariffs on goods from China have been 145 percent. China has now replied to US imports with an inch of 125 percent.

On social media, especially on Tikok, there is a growing number of contributions from users who live in China and praise the quality of products from Chinese factories. It is unclear whether the posts of the Chinese government are controlled by the Chinese government or Chinese manufacturers simply smell their chance of entering the US and European market.

Rarely do the Tikok users provide information about their exact location. The videos are also common that it is often emphasized how important Chinese products are for the supply chains of western companies.

A particularly active user is Lunasourcingchina, who regularly reports on Chinese suppliers of well -known brands such as Sephora and Zara. In one of her latest videos, she deals with the effects of tariffs in detail and explains how companies in China pass on the associated costs to the end consumers. “The factories will not just swallow the losses. They are not looking to lose money, and the importers will not cover the costs, but they will simply pass them on to the supply chain,” she said in one of her videos.

The videos of a Tikok user have attracted a lot of attention in the past few days: he posts under the name of Senbag and says that he is a pocket manufacturer from Guangzhou, China.

Senbags accuses fashion brands like Hermès to cheat their customers and also advertises their own products. The message: My bags for $ 1,000 are identical to luxury bags for $ 40,000 in terms of appearance, material and processing. Don’t be cheated by brands, the high -priced products of which I make far more cost -effective. Order directly from me.

In one of his videos he sits on a stool in a small hall. In the background, men and women can be seen at tables that sew. Senbags holds a so -called Birkin Bag in his hands. The product of the French manufacturer Hermès can be obtained from just under 9000 euros, the price limit is almost open.

The model in the video costs $ 38,000 at Hermès, says Senbags. He offers it for only $ 1,000. This is an unbeatable offer because the quality of its bags is comparable to that of western luxury brands.

The video from Senbags has been viral in the past few days and created very different reactions. A large account on X (formerly Twitter) was forced to clarify. The user behind the Handle @Dieworkwear is considered an institution in terms of men’s clothing and fashion. He wrote contributions to publications such as “GQ”, “The Washington Post”, “Esquire”, “Foreign Policy”, “Politico”, “The Guardian” and “The Nation”. However, his identity is unknown.

In a post on X, @Dieworkwear writes in direct reaction to Senbags: “This video (…) has tempted people to reduce fashion production to an overly simple narrative.”

The Chinese manufacturer’s claim that his bags are just like Hermès because they use the same materials is a fallacy.

“It’s like saying that my spaghetti are as good as that of a star chef just because we use both tomatoes and flour,” says @dieworkwear. In fact, it depends more on skills than on the materials.

Hermès make things around the world, but the classic bags like the Birkin Bag are tailored and sewn in France. “People really only repeat what they hear on Tikkok.”

In the meantime, American Tikok users have become aware of the large number of Chinese content. They say that Prochinese manufacturers literally flood the platform and its for-youou pages with their content.

“The Tikok Trading War is a fashion history in real time,” is a comment under the video of a Chinese manufacturer, for example. Or: “You should probably have taken away this app when you had the chance.” The way the Chinese manufacturers play their sheet is a 10 out of 10 across the board.