Earlier this week, Samsung announced it would be releasing a collaboration with Supreme during a conference in China to reveal the Galaxy A8. No, not that Supreme. Samsung said it would be collaborating with a knockoff Supreme based out of Italy known as Supreme Italia.
Apparently, it wasn't even an accident. The South Korean tech company was fully committed to moving forward with its plans. Samsung China's digital marketing manager Leo Lau initially released a now-deleted statement saying, "The brand we are collaborating with is Supreme Italia, not Supreme US. Supreme US doesn’t have the authorization to sell and market in China. Whereas the Italian brand got the APAC (except Japan) product retail and marketing authorization."
However, given the outrage many had with the idea of a major corporation working with a company using the same name and logos to resemble one of the biggest clothing brands in the world (somehow legally), Samsung might be re-considering its decision.
According to Gizmodo, Samsung recently issued a statement on the Chinese social media platform Weibo that roughly translates to, "Recently, Samsung Electronics announced at the launch of the Galaxy A8s that it will cooperate with Supreme Italia in the Chinese market. We are currently re-evaluating this cooperation, and we deeply regret the inconvenience caused."
If Samsung decides to still go ahead with the Supreme Italia project, there would not be much that James Jebbia's Supreme can do about sales in China. The brand is barred from marketing its products in the Asian country. Looking past that though, it is definitely odd to see a name as big across the globe as Samsung planning to put out official products with a known bootlegger.
Anyone looking to see the original announcement can do so here around the 18:23 mark.
UPDATE (02/04): According to Engadget, the collaboration between Samsung and infamous bootlegger Supreme Italia has been canceled. First announced back in December, the news of the collab caused some controversy given the fact that Supreme Italia creates fake products, somehow legally, and has nothing to do with the real Supreme.
A translated statement posted by Samsung on Chinese social media site Weibo reads, "Samsung Electronics had previously mentioned a collaboration with Supreme Italia at the Galaxy A8s China launch event on December 10th, Samsung Electronics has now decided to terminate this collaboration."
