When you’re in China, you’ve most likely seen the yellow military, weaving by site visitors, delivering every part from late-night mala xiangguo to your morning espresso. Meituan riders are an iconic fixture of city China. However this previous week, a brand new uniform design popped up in Chongqing, sending the web right into a frenzy and leaving everybody scratching their heads.
The viral picture? A rider, clad in what regarded unmistakably like Meituan’s signature yellow, sporting the reasonably… unconventional slogan: “Click on the male mannequin, go to the Meituan app.” Naturally, netizens went wild. “Meituan has this type of enterprise now?” “Is that this even authorized?” have been just some of the bewildered feedback flooding social media. Curious fingers scrolled by the app, looking for these elusive “male fashions,” solely to search out… nothing.
Seems, this wasn’t some audacious new Meituan enterprise into the gig financial system’s extra unconventional corners. Da Wan Information reached out to the meals supply big, who swiftly confirmed what many suspected: these uniforms are 100% unofficial. They’re knock-offs, cooked up on e-commerce platforms, utterly divorced from Meituan’s branding.
Meituan‘s been on the offensive, cracking down on counterfeit gear and dealing with legislation enforcement to sort out these rogue uniform producers. It’s a wild reminder of how simply model notion might be hijacked within the digital age, particularly when a couple of enterprising (and maybe mischievous) of us resolve to place their very own spin on a longtime look. It additionally speaks to the facility of a uniform—even a pretend one —to immediately seize consideration and spark a complete new city legend.
Might all this additionally stem from the fetishization of food delivery drivers—a cultural moment that we reported on a few years ago? Regardless of the motive, the following time you notice a Meituan rider, give them a second look. Simply be sure they’re not promising any male fashions on demand. Until, after all, that’s your precise order.
Cowl picture by way of The Japan Instances.
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