Western apparel popular in DPRK

(Hat tip to Gavin) A reader recently visited the DPRK and took these pictures of children playing in Pyongyang. There was no shortage of Western brands on display:

Pictured above: BMW, Ronaldo, Weetbix (Weetabix), Puma, and Snoopy

Thanks to entrepreneurial Chinese and DPRK merchants, Western brands are getting their foot in the door with some free advertising. If BMW keeps up this covert strategy they might be able to knock Mercedes out of the top position some day!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 at 5:09 pm and is filed under Civil society, Clothing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Simon

while obviously most of these clothes will be Chinese knock-offs there is an Adidas shop in Pyongyang selling the real genuine items, also some other German designer-wear that I have never heard of as well. Not sure who buys it as it does retail on the expensive end of the scale but for aspiring bad-boys and fashionistas this shop may be the place to go, the equivalent of buying Versace in Beijing perhaps! (BTW this shop is at the Changwangsan Hotel just in case anyone is in the area and needs some genuine Adidas gear)
Cordelia

Isn’t Adidas a US brand? Can they really open up in the DPRK? Gosh, what’s next, Starbucks?? lol!
NKeconWatch

Adidas is a German company.

This Pyongyang neighborhood has several hard currency shops. There is also Ragwon Department Store which (back in the day) specialized in selling Japanese goods. It was locally known as the “Japanese store” —if memory serves me correctly.
Gag Halfrunt

North Korea seems to have fairly good relations with Germany. The German embassy in Pyongyang was allowed to open a library a couple of years ago, and there was an exhibition of photographs in February to mark the “day of establishment of diplomatic ties between the DPRK and Germany” (I wonder if this refers to the establishment of relations with East Germany). The exhibition was in Hamhung, which was rebuilt by East German architects between 1955 and 1962, until East Germany and North Korea took opposing positions on the Sino-Soviet split. This dispute, incidentally, also led to North Korean students in East Germany being recalled home, leaving behind German spouses and children in some cases.
Michael Rank

One of the kids has even adapted the western meme of wearing his baseball cap back to front. FWIW Weet-Bix is the Australian equivalent of the UK breakfast cereal Weetabix (there’s an entire Wikipedia entry on this) and the Girl Wear Fashion tee-shirt could only be Chinese. And sort of relevantly, there was much fuss in the press a week or two ago about a pizza restaurant opening in PY but I am authoritatively informed that there in fact are several places where you can get pizza in PY!!!
james

well obviously these are the bel-air children of NK….basically anyone living in Pyongyang.

North Korean Economy Watch

Western apparel popular in DPRK