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Design made in Switzerland: 5 iconic Swiss products that play with the colour red
by Pia Seidel
The Chinese market challenge: find an equivalent to a product in the Galaxus range
15/11/2022
Translation: Katherine Martin
Pictures: Carolin Teufelberger, Livia Gamper
In Serbia’s capital city, there’s a huge Chinese market. While on a business trip there, we set ourselves a challenge: find an item that can rival something in the Galaxus product range for no more than 1,000 Serbian dinars.
Looking at everything at Blok 70 would take days, if not weeks. That’s why we took on a challenge. Everybody was given 1,000 Serbian dinars (about 9 francs) and a one-hour time window. The goal? To find a product that’s also available on Galaxus.
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Carolin Teufelberger: «Since our range has over 4 million products, the challenge for me wasn’t finding a Galaxus counterpart – it was finding something that Galaxus doesn’t have.»
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Livia Gamper: Last but not least, these so-called InPods smile at me from their pretty packaging. They look like Apple’s AirPods, but they come in pink. The earphones also come in blue, green, purple and yellow – a real joy compared to Apple’s monotonous white. The InPods completely exhaust my 1000-dinar budget.
So how do earphones worth 9 francs sound? First of all, my ear almost explodes when I try to listen to some music at medium volume, which is far too loud on the InPods. I can only tolerate it at about 10 per cent volume. Regardless of what I’m listening to, it sounds muffled and tinny. This AirPod equivalent’s case is charged with a Lightning cable – just like the original. And just like the original, there’s no USB-C port.
I also abandon the earphones in Belgrade. Not just because I’m worried they’ll blow up on the plane, but because, like Ramon, I don’t want the fakes to get me in trouble at customs in Switzerland.
Testing devices and gadgets is my thing. Some experiments lead to interesting insights, others to demolished phones. I’m hooked on series and can’t imagine life without Netflix. In summer, you’ll find me soaking up the sun by the lake or at a music festival.
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