Adidas Philippine Flag Jacket Pulled Out of the Market

The Philippine Flag is Philippine's pride. There are a number of memorabilia of the Philippine flag that is out in the market today. It has been widely used as a design in a number of commodities like interior decorations, souvenirs, bags, and even in clothing. There are a lot of people who have a liking for the Philippine flag jacket when Adidas launched this design series a couple of years back. It was a limited edition clothing gear and in no time it was sold out in stores.

Immediately after its big hit in the market, it was suddenly pulled out because it breaks some of the Philippine law that prohibits defacing the flag. As Filipinos, we take pride in the Philippine flag, which is the symbol of our nation's pride.

In Section 34 of the Republic Act No. 8491, it states that the defacing, mutilating, or use of the flag in contempt is illegal. The flag should not in any way touch the ground or another person or any object. It is also prohibits the use of the flag as table cloth, festoon, or drapery. It should not be used as cover for statuses, ceiling or walls. Even using it at the side, back or top of vehicles is considered dishonoring the flag. Most importantly, the flag should not be used as a trademark in the industrial, commercial or agricultural markets.

Nonetheless, there are many overseas Filipino workers who are not under Philippine law who would want to wear Pinoy pride with the Adidas Philippine jacket. It is still widely being sold online in most web stores. You can even get in for as low as $99, which includes international shipping.

Bench/

Bench, which is one of the top leading local brands that originated in the Philippines, started as a small store for men’s shirts. And nowadays, they tend to offer wide varieties of products like undergarments, food, shoes, perfume, etc. Unlike before, they now cater both men and women consumers as it is sliced through demographical division -- age, gender, socio-economic status, etc. They also expanded its merchandise to United States, Middle East and China. And they even established a salon for men and women here in the Philippines too, which is named as Bench Fix Salon.

Their products are affordable for people from lower-middle and upper-middle classes. They also offer premium quality products at reasonable prices. They give you the assurance that your money is of the worth and that patronizing their brand is substantial.

I asked someone from Baguio about Bench and this was her statement: “The Bench company offers a diversity of products ranging from everyday clothing to undergarments, shoes and accessories. However, it seems to have very scarce ads and very low market share, as in it makes little effort positioning its name in the market to beat its competitors with branding, share of mind and share of heart.” And because of this, it made me think whether Bench only focuses in Metro Manila and other highly developed cities in the Philippines. I guess Bench needs to widen the range and scope of their target market in order to reach out to those other cities in our country and be popular nationwide and even worldwide in the near future.