Actually “knockoff household articles” have always been existent in the industry. “After each exhibition of household articles, similar products will emerge on the market, which are imitated amazingly fast, annoying us greatly,” says Mr. Wang, a merchant in furniture business. In addition to technology copycatting, some even collect atlas in brand stores or download the latest styles from Internet and then deliver these styles to workers for production. One woodworker tells the journalist that “Finished products bought by consumers may be in good quality but with a much higher price. With advanced technology in nowadays, we can do those works as baking varnish or lamination to produce almost the same style.”

The journalist finds in Changchun household articles market that many floors and ceramic tiles are more or less the same in style and color, which can be hardly distinguished by consumers from the appearance. The original designer of these styles is even very difficult to know.

Knockoff products supporter: price is of overriding importance

Take some branded bathroom product for example, one flush toilet would cost ten years or more from research and development to production and launch in the market. However, once the product emerges in the market, not long after will the knockoff product emerge at a much lower price. Take another product for example, some brand kitchen ventilator will be sold at a price around RMB 10,000, but the knockoff product only costs about RMB 7,000. The “efficient” copycatting speed and lower price contribute to the great success of knockoff household products.

The high price of genuine brand product keeps it far away from consumer’s choices; on the other hand, the financial crisis also provides the proper environment for growth of knockoff household products, and “knockoff products” supporters think that the knockoff products are favored by consumers for substantial reasons.

Knockoff products objectors: low quality with waste of resources

“Household products focus on design most, and the product lacking originality and creation would cause a dead end to household products,” says Mr. Chen, a designer in home decoration. In addition, the knockoff products of low quality will annoy many people, as some knockoff products are actually only the same as original ones in appearance despite functions, quality or services. For example, some knockoff floor has bad performance in moisture resistance, which will easily bulge or deform. Some knockoff sofa is filled with inferior materials inside, which will be tired out in two or three years. Knockoff products objectors think that support and purchase of original products not only shows respect to the designer, but also are the representation of living quality.

Today, energy conservation and environmental protection are becoming more and more important, and objectors consider the knockoff products are the substantial causes of tremendous resources waste. The household products are mostly made of woods which grow very slow, while the knockoff products manufacturers often waste lots of woods due to backward production mode and may also fail to meet the environment protection standard, which may be largely reduced with scientific and proper production mode.

“Knockoff Products” Also Needs to Learn”

When some manufacturers of electronic product put lots of efforts on technology research and get out of the shadow of “copycat”, Chinese household articles manufacturers are still pleased to compare the speed of copycatting; no doubt somebody would say that “there’s no creativity in knockoff household products but only pure copycatting”. With a view to IT products with earliest history of copycatting, they seem to represent the wisdom and creativity of more people at grass-root level. The knockoff cell phones imitate appearance or functions of brand products at very low costs, and finally transcend the original ones with innovation. Then, shall we ask whether knockoff household products should also learn such reaction speed and creativity?