You don't need to be a vegan to look at the latest KFC merchandise and wonder "WTF". Kentucky Fried Chicken recently announced it will soon release the Wrapuette.
Inspired by bags that were popular in the 2000s such as Fendi's "Baguette", the Wrapuette is an Italian leather handbag (apparently handcrafted by Savile Row artisans), dedicated to the British market.
It is designed to be carried as an ordinary handbag, but it is lined with an insulating layer to keep food warm so that it can perfectly hold one of the chicken chain's wraps. The bag will be available in two versions, pebbled or textured leather in KFC's signature red with a black and white image of Colonel Sanders and KFC charms. Sold in a limited edition, the handbag can be pre-ordered from KFC's online shop. Apparently, there's even a waiting list for the Wrapuette, similar to the waiting lists you may get for more exclusive handbags such as Hermès' Birkin.
According to some, it will be all the rage as it taps into logo mania and adds to it an ironic twist, it is indeed a perfect example of "fashion meets kitsch/trash", something that modern fashion houses and designers such as Demna Gvasalia at Balenciaga or Jeremy Scott at Moschino got us accustomed to.
Cheap merchandise - T-shirts, totes, baseball caps and mugs - with logos of a variety of brands and companies (think KFC, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, etc) are obvious commercial brand paraphernalia. Depending from the brand in question, these items can turn into desirable objects and even achieve a degree of coolness as they allow consumers to show their tastes not just in style, but in food and drink as well.
For decades Coca-Cola produced such merchandise and, in the last few years, the company also launched colaborations with prominent fashion brands or licensed its logo for garments produced by fast fashion retailers. So, this sort of merchandise is not innovative nor new, but it is simply part of the game.
KFC is well-known for releasing such products: its online shop sells sweats, T-shirts, baseball caps and socks, while in 2020 the company launched collaboration with Crocs, releasing some - well - very ugly co-branded clogs complete with Jibbitz™ charms made to resemble and smell like fried chicken.
The problem with KFC's Wrapuette, though, is its questionable price, while KFC's Crocs were sold at $60, the Wrapuette is directly inspired by the high-low trend with a high price point (think DHL's T-shirts by Vêtements): it retails indeed at £198 (230 Euro). Mind you, there is a charitable effort behind it. According to the website, all proceeds will go to the KFC Foundation which, it says, "supports grassroots non-profit organisations that empower young people across the UK, helping them to fulfil their potential and build a positive future."
Yet the supposedly collectible Wrapuette makes you think: if you want a leather bag you may indeed look for something more exclusive, like a designer bag, and if you want an insulated food bag, well, the offer is even wider. So, the question is, why would consumers in their sane minds buy it? Just for its supposedly cool logo?
We'll see, but consumers may be unpredictable and may not like the high price point, after all, when Lidl launched its own cheap sneakers, people unexpectedly turned them into a must-have. The shoes soon went sold out and were sold on eBay for hundreds of Euros (they are currently available on eBay for 20 to 40 Euros as the hype died down...). Will this happen also for the Wrapuette? (it may be worth remembering that also KFC's Crocs went sold out and you can still find some pairs on eBay at roughly 300 Euros) We'll see, in the meantime you decide if this is ironic, iconic or simply idiotic.
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