Fake Luxury Shoe Store Prank proves Luxury is just Perception - Payless

we at payless wondered how much people would pay for our shoes if they didn't know they were our shoes so we rebranded for a weekend yo what's going on youtube it's your boy acl official back with another video now before i go ahead and play the rest of that video clip let me give you a bit of context into what's going on so obviously everyone knows luxury brands have very high prices

For example, you've got brands like Christian Louboutin selling trainers for £2,000.

You've got Balenciaga selling the Triple S's for around 700.

And over time, it's pretty much become the norm to equate high prices with luxury products.

Now, three months ago, Payless, which is a low-cost footwear retailer over in the US,

They went ahead and tested this theory.

What they did was rebrand their entire store and the name and they also increased their prices a lot and the results are quite interesting.

So what I'm gonna do now is play the rest of the clip and I'll be back in a minute.

We at Payless wondered how much people would pay for our shoes.

if they didn't know they were our shoes.

So we rebranded for a weekend.

We built a fake luxury store, filled it with avant-garde sculptures and displays.

We even hired a full team of sales associates.

Then we filled all the shelves with Payless shoes and jacked up our prices as much as 1,800%.

And finally, we gave it what you might call a fancier name.

Welcome to Polessi.

Pelesi is just such high quality, high fashion.

It's taking your shoe game up to the next level.

It's very European, very upscale.

The guests at the Pelesi grand opening party had no idea any of these shoes were from Peles.

It looks really well made.

I love a heel that's kind of chunky because it means you can jump up and down, do some back flips maybe.

It's a center.

It's one of those shoes that you're just going to get compliments on over and over again.

Elegant, sophisticated, and versatile.

For me to experience this as an Italian designer is amazing.

I could definitely wear this to a Met Gala dinner.

I just think it's so unique.

I would definitely spend $295 on a pump like this.

I would pay like $300, $400 for these shoes for sure.

I'd probably spend about $500 on this.

Compliments are great and all, but would these fashionista influencer types open up their wallets for our shoes?

We watched from a room backstage as our first customer approached the register.

We all celebrated the first sale, but then we witnessed more and more shoes selling.

Shoes sold for $250, $400, and even $600.

But before any of them left, we let them know the shoes were actually from Payless.

What?

No way.

You've got to be kidding me.

Shut up.

Are you serious?

No.

Wait, did I just pay too much?

I love Christian Siriano.

Oh, I would support this.

Anyone who bought the shoes got them from us as a free gift, but we proved that they could sell for over 10 times the normal Payless price.

Now anyone can come into Payless and get these same exact shoes for as low as $19.99.

i am very very happy with this purchase and i will be going to pay less now we all know that was probably a lie she probably just said that for the cameras i doubt very much she will be shopping at payless mainly because as that clip just showed people care a lot more about the brand image and in some cases the prices more so than they do about the actual product and the quality of it even though this is nothing new it does make you think a bit more about the whole situation

So if we look at it in reverse and start with a luxury brand, for example, Gucci, take a few of their products, for example, the wash logo t-shirt or the age trainers, you'll see that they're not really luxury items, they're just priced very highly.

But because of Gucci's brand image, they'll get categorized as luxury products and a lot of buyers just buy them because of that.

This won't be the case for every luxury brand, of course.

Some do have legitimate reasons as to why their prices are quite high.

Last year Business Insider spoke directly to Dave Mosquito who's a co-owner of LeatherSpa.

They worked directly with Christian Louboutin and he shed some light on why the shoes might be quite expensive.

I mean there's a lot of things that go into the design of a shoe and the making of a shoe.

Most importantly I think is who's designing it, who's manufacturing it and also what materials they're using to make the shoes.

Whichever way you look at it, the debate surrounding luxury brand product quality and the prices is going to be going on forever.

Let me know your thoughts down in the comments.

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