If you’re familiar with Balenciaga, you’ll know the brand isn’t shy about putting out some questionable—and expensive—fashion pieces. Who could forget the platform Crocs that walked in the October 2017 Paris Fashion Week? We definitely didn’t, and we weren’t surprised when the luxury brand released yet another exorbitantly priced item. But this time, it features some cool design elements. The $1,790 Balenciaga supermarket tote is designed to look like a magazine cover, and it’s definitely worth checking out.
Let’s take a quick look back at some of the previous apparel and accessory pieces Balenciaga released that received a lot of negative feedback:
- Those platform Crocs
- A T-shirt with a dress shirt attached to the front
- A seven-layer coat
- The controversial New York Bazar Shopper tote
- A $2,000 tote bag that looked like a high-end replica of a shopping bag.
While the majority of those products and apparel pieces left consumers puzzled, the Winter 18 Campaign Supermarket Tote Bag, as it’s called, incorporated some really neat design features that are out of the ordinary—in a good way.
The tote includes images of some of Balenciaga’s Winter 18 lookbook designs on the front and back, and it comes in two different color combinations: green/black and red/blue. Plus, it features the white Balenciaga logo and details about the lookbook images. As noted on the website, the tote is made from 100 percent calfskin.
Overall, it’s a pretty cool design, one that could have similar applications for distributors working with publishing industry clients. (As we’ve seen, a whole lot of them are getting into the promotional products game these days.) Those clients could feature some of their own magazine covers on a tote, or go meta with it and feature images of some of their other branded merchandise. The idea could work for any brand that has a product catalog, really.
We already know that totes are great for brand exposure, and who knows, maybe this idea could make its way to promotional bags. We’ll leave that up to you to decide—but we do recommend aiming for a cheaper price point than $1,790.
