Why Diesel Is Selling Knock-Offs To Unsuspecting Customers

“Handbag, handbag, watches, watches.” Down in New York’s Chinatown, sales assistants operate from behind concealed doors and the trunks of cars, plying their luxury knock-offs to fashion fans who want that latest four-figure It bag without the prohibitive price tag. As of today, however, there’s a new sales tactic on the block: Diesel has opened a pop-up store of products based on bootleg designs called ‘DEISEL – For Successfull Living’

The pop-up, which is decked out like any other traditional hole-in-the-wall, fake-as-they-come shop space on Canal Street, is part of Diesel’s spring/summer 2018 campaign strategy, Go With The Flaw. Stock comprises a series of denim, sweatshirts, caps and T-shirts, all printed with the misspelt Diesel logo, and is priced at knock-off sums. According to Renzo Rosso, the president of OTB group, which owns Diesel, the venture is aimed at “encouraging fans to feel free to wear whatever they want.”

Being authentically fake is an interesting idea. Bootlegs have historically been viewed as A Bad Thing for fashion, eating into profits and damaging the inherent value of a brand, with the caveat that they will also possibly harm the customer who – wittingly or unwittingly – buys them (those fake Prada sunglasses? No UV protection. And watch out for Cobalt-60, a radioactive isotrope, found in counterfeit metal bag straps). But in recent seasons brands have been keen to embrace the bootleg, with Vetements and Gucci both selling “fake” collections of designs based on counterfeits popular in Korea for the former, and in the Eighties streets of New York for the latter.

Is imitation still the greatest form of flattery – or an illegal practice that needs to be stamped out? “It’s both!” says Rosso, corresponding with Vogueover email. “If someone copies you it means that your brand is worthy and top of mind with consumers, but at the same time we make every effort to protect our brand from counterfeit activity. We will keep fighting to protect our brand by implementing state-of-the-art technologies, we cannot have any tolerance for fraudsters – on and offline.” The Chinatown pop-up, Rosso says, was conceived of as a joke. “We wanted to bring out our self-irony… and also to slightly mock the current logomania trend, in a Diesel way. We never want to take ourselves too seriously.”

Does he worry that by making a virtue of counterfeit, he is undermining the value of authentic, full-price product? If people can get just as good "fake" Diesel products at a "knock-off" price, why would they then pay for the real deal? “Not at all,” Rosso replies. “We are using the power of Diesel to strengthen it even more. The real deal is for those who own a DEISEL item now – it will become something to collect and impossible to find unless you buy it fast on our e-comm before it’s sold out. We did this for our core fashion customer looking for something that will turn heads and spark questions, while actively taking part in the culture and reinforcing our commitment to go with the flaw. The 'knock-off' price point and the fake store was an experiment to celebrate those brave enough to find their own unique style.”

Still, Rosso always keeps the business plan front of mind. “If anyone else follows they’ll have to do a knock-off of a knock-off,” he writes. “But, just to be clear: we trademarked DEISEL.”