On Tiktok, Chinese factories wander

Hermès Hands, Birkenstocks, Tide Pods, LululeMon ActiveWear and luxury furniture mountains – what if I told you that you can cut the broker and buy it directly from the source to get a small part of the cost?

Thus, a kind of viral videos that appear on social media that claims to show Chinese manufacturers that produce popular products by American consumers. Videos contain cheerful background music, and some light editing, are delivered in English, and are clearly targeting American shoppers. In one clip on Tiktok, a man holds a group of shoes that look like Birkenstock. Instead of the full price of $ 165, @china.yiwu.factor’s It is only 10 dollars for the husband. The video got six million views before deleting it.

“Chinese manufacturers ignore luxury brands is my favorite Tiktok,” says one of the comments. Another user says: “Let’s start overcoming this retail stores and buying directly from the source,” says another user. Videos are completely designed to derive the maximum feelings of American viewers who were overwhelmed by identification anxiety and political turmoil.

With Trump’s rise in the global economy using an arbitrary and severe threat DefinitionsIncluding 145 percent tax on Chinese goods, millions of Americans realize: We rely on China to get a lot of things. Our phones, computers, shoes, clothes, home appliances and more in China are manufactured. Against this background, the Chinese factory videos are withholding shoppers with promises of deals – but they are not as simple as they make the clips.

Take, for example, Birkenstocks $ 10. According to the company’s website, Boston is manufactured in Germany, not China, and Birkestock puts himself It is also resistant abroad to produce it. It is true that sometimes the product components are made in a manufacturing center like China and then It is shipped elsewhere to be completed or assembledThus obtaining the appointment “made in Italy”, for example. It is also true that even when luxurious goods are We are Shoppers in other countries are made with quality or craftsmanship, often that Chinese employees who receive low salaries Doing work in European countries. Since shoppers had a closer look at manufacturing systems through investigative reports and workers’ accounts, they learned to be skeptical – even discontent – in manufacturing claims, especially for luxury goods. Under this mentality, each company tears you, and it is completely logical that sandals and leather shoes bearing a “made in Germany” mark are produced cheaply in China. But a little drilling indicates that the Chinese “Birkenstock” factory is not what appears to be.

The @china.yiwu.factor tiktok account is associated with the Aliexpress store that sells what you say is suede shoes for about $ 15. At first glance, it looks like Birkenstocks – but Satan is in the details. Pictures in customer reviews show that some shoes carry Kidmi, not BirkensTock, while others have no brand at all. The subcontractor is a different design and the Kidmi is sealed as well. Aliexpress also lists the Aliexpress store Perkinsock sandals are similar Another brand, Orerado. On these shoes, the difference is tougher: instead of Birkenstock foot, these sandals look soft and spawned. The lower slippers appear to be the wrong color. Kidmi and Orugo shoes are sold on Amazon at a slightly higher price point.

Birkenstock and Tiktok did not immediately respond to the comment.

All signs indicate the conclusion that the Birkenstock Factory produces a deception of well -known shoes in a small portion of the cost using visually similar materials, but they are fundamentally different. If you purchase Tiktok “Birkenstocks”, you may have a good version that someone does not notice on the street is a trick – this does not make Birkenstocks. But the belief that you are a smart shopping “cutting the mediator” of the real thing may be a sufficient reward.

The Americans are the largest buyers in the world, and We are used to To wild deals, below the price of a barrel, and Rausing quality In exchange for the ability to buy A large group of things. In a video of Tiktok by User @Luoluo.sunny, a woman sits in front of a wall of fake Luis Vuitton bags and small Hermes Kelly bags, which reach about $ 30,000 in the used market and is famous for buying in the store even when you have money. “Hello Boss!” The woman says. “Do you like Mini Katie? Follow me.” It carries the small wallets with bright pink and blue colors, the protective cover is still on handles and metal clips. It appears to be in a commercial center where the social arrangement of clear consumption was turned upside down: “designer” bags hanging on hooks and accumulating in cardboard boxes.

Some shoppers buy that imagination Hermes bag worth $ 2 It is an alternative to the real thing that indicates that the real cost (and the “most susceptible to the discussion) of the product is lost on many Americans who have not been unparalleled on the factory floor. As long as we can buy dozens of $ 2 handbags that imitate a luxurious product, we may temporarily forget it The rent has risen The minimum national wage has not increased for 15 years.

Ironically, these direct counterfeit goods to the consumer are preparing to rise in the price regardless, thanks to Trump taxes. If you request, for example, 10 dollars handbags and shipping them directly to your home, your package He will get the definitions Of the 120 percent of the package value or a fixed rate of $ 100 per package, depending on the option set by the charger. For this cost, the American buyer can instead buy a decent leather bag in the used market.

Even if most people do not buy products from the Tiktok factory accounts, the correspondence is useful for China. As a soft energy It fades under TrumpThere is an opening for other countries, especially China, to enter – whether it is Providing foreign aid as the United States declined or Encouraging Americans to visit China To buy furniture at a cheap price and ship them home in the boxes. “This is the way you win a commercial war,” says a comment under a video of the furniture manufacturers.

Elsewhere, there were jokes from the Tiktok algorithm that suddenly serves countless videos from the factory, as they wandered in the confirmation of American legislators that the application is a Chinese advertising machine.

One of the viewers said: “I feel that Tiktok has turned into Chinese servers overnight.” “And I do not complain.” The comment loved more than 100,000 times.