F-u-c-k-u china, not as what you think.

Ok, look at the photo below and then read the stament.
Do you agree?





Dear Madam,
Dear Sir,

Herewith we would like to give the following statement and hope that we can clarify the misunderstanding that has occurred:

Last season the company produced a limited number of T-shirts with the print
“F-u-c-k-u china”.
We would like to point out that these T-shirts are not produced nor sold any longer since last season. Our business partner “Kult” will also retire all the products with this print.
The limited line of T-shirts was always only produced on a maximum capacity of 100 pieces.

The company PHILIPP PLEIN wanted to provoke and to initiate a thought-provoking impulse.
Even if the company PHILIPP PLEIN partly produces in China and has strong and good relations with its Chinese partners, the brand suffers severe and growing piracy issues coming from China…

The company PHILIPP PLEIN is a small yet innovative company that since its early days fights against plagiarisms (in general) manufactured in low-wages countries.
It can be incredible frustrating and difficult for a SME (small to medium enterprise) such as ours to survive and resist such criminal powers from product piracy.

The at first sight provocative and ambiguous print, was supposed to make the clients think and reflect what the hidden message was (Never we had intend to hurt, mistreat, or dishonour the Chinese folk nor its citizens. In addition, by no means we planned any kind of political, racist nor discriminating statement.) :

- Firstly, more and more products are suffering from piracy, increasingly originated in China, leading that both the designer and the supplier suffer from financial losses, having as an end consequence job cuts (also the company PHILIPP PLEIN is a victim from piracy products).

- Secondly, on the other hand, the collaboration with Chinese suppliers and companies enables to create and develop products that would not be realisable under other circumstances. Nowadays, one cannot anymore put aside China in business relationships.

If you look carefully at the print, one can see that the combination of the single letters “F-U-C-K” is not used and written as such but in an abbreviated form. There is a hidden message in this abbreviation:

******"the Fascinating & Urban Collection: Kiss you China”.******

This very provocative and suggestive print was definitely a way to point out that one hand we cannot renounce to work with China, but on the other hand, more and more companies suffer from piracy or low-price article leading to a very hard price war and an aggressive competitiveness.

Together with our partner, the company Kult, we deeply regret that all these misunderstandings have occurred with this limited collection of T-shirts and abbreviation.
We sincerely never wanted to hurt individuals, and for sure not the citizens of the Republic of China.
We explicitly would like to take the chance to officially apologies and to excuse ourselves for the insensitive and non tactful way we did it. Please note once again, that this was a limited action and that we are in very good term with our entire Chinese Business partner.

Please be so kind to accept our explanation and remember that we did not intend to print any political, racist nor discriminating statement.

We stand entirely at your disposition for any further request.
This official apology-statement will be forwarded to the Chinese embassy in Germany and in Switzerland. In addition, the company PHILIPP PLEIN will also publish a statement on its website under [url]www.philipp-plein.com/china.[/url]

In advance we thank you for your comprehension.

PPI AG

AND BY THE WAY WE LOVE CHINA!!!