i've been duped: the case of the fake samsonite phone case
roughly a month or so ago, i lost my trusty ol' tiangge phone case (where i keep my rare siemens c60 scratch and scot-free. don't ask me yet why i refuse to upgrade. it's another blog post) in a jeepney while i was texting someone that i won't be late in a business meeting. that trusty tiangge case is made of black canvas, with a zip-up seal and a aluminum beelayer snap. it keeps the phone space in my pocket so small without compromising scratch protection.oh well, so i lost it. so i needed to get myself another one. i tried the velvet pouches they sell at the quezon avenue gutter. my phone kept sliding off. i tried the kipling-ish snap cases they sell at mrt stations. too bulky and tacky. i tried the mesh pouch. too sleazy.
so i gave up and tried to look for a case in megamall. and in one of the cyberzone stores there, i got a velcro case made of faux nyltex weave and airmesh material. for P300. i thought i had a fuckin cool phone case. industrial design, clean, smart, a little cracked up yet sohpisticated. until four weeks later when one of the seams broke down, and i had to put on mighty bond to seal it, which made it even worse and hardened the rip into what looks (and feels) like a plastic glass shard. so off i go again in my phone case search.
enter gateway mall aka gay-way. i went to levi's store (to have some jeans altered), guess (i needed some socks) and nike park to run some personal and family errands. and at nike park, i saw this really cool-looking arm wallet that can safely house my mp3 player when i do my cardio, and can also double as a cellphone case. it even has an id slot inside where i can put in my phone number, tax number and stuff. and it's soo cheap at P600 something.
but because the strap is permanently sewn in, and because the wallet is too bulky to lug around (and there's no other way of wearing it than to strap it in my arms), i figured i'd kinda look stupid and too fasyon (in a bad way) in it. so i had the nice saleslady reserve it for 15 minutes while i scoured some other shops.
until i reached travel club. i knew samsonite and victorinox make phone cases and stuff, so i figured i could check them out before i finally get the stupid-looking arm wallet. and when i scoured the case racks, you can only paint the horror in my face when i saw a samsonite case with the same design as the case i got in megamall a month or so ago.
this is what i got at that el cheapo knockoff store-slash-welfare-center for snatched cellphones with fake hello kitty covers:
and this is what i got at travel club, the REAL THING:
at least the megamall case didn't pretend it was a samsonite or whatever, but both cases were really the same in design (they even used the same fuckin airmesh material!). except the samsonite case had a different nyltex weave to the ersatz one, which was harder and used pathetic black felt board to hold it together. goddammit, both holster cases even had the same bias tape sewn at the inside seams, except the the faker used felt paper on the inside, while the genuine article used padded polyester with a repeating logo.
this fakester, with FELT PAPER, of all conceivable inside seams....
or this original digital loot bag, with premium-looking polyester padding?
the sammynite case, i also noticed, took some effort when opening the velcro, while the samsonite velcro was easy to open. and the belt band of the original was also softer than the fakey, which apparently didn't want me to stick it on anything.
and the hardest part of it all: while the megamall shit cost me P300, the real samsonite only cost me P430, with a surprise 10 percent discount because of the mall wide sale (and because i was nice to teresa, the really nice saleslady at travel club. you should get your next jansport, samsonite or victorinox bags from her!). and the real samsonite had a 10-year warranty (meaning, if the seams get ripped off, i don't have to put mighty bond on; i'll just bring it to the samsonite brand store in either podium or rockwell, and they'll do the repairs for free). i didn't even get a fucking receipt on the fake!
at least the fakey didn't pretend to be anything; there were no tags, brands, or misspelled bezels on it. just a clean face, which enamored me to it. but still, that was P300 worth of nonsense. i could've seen three films with that, or gotten a good book with that, or paid a unit of my tuition with that. the whole incident just sucks.
moral of the story: follow my mantra: it's either all highbrow brand, or no brand at all. no fakes!
seriously, this has been my shopping mantra for a loong time. i guess that's why i love thrift/secondhand/ukay stores. if i go to an upscale mall, look for me at the specialty stores (m&s, diesel, florsheim, nautica, lacoste, levi's, the list goes on) looking for premium items at top peso prices (after a good pair of khakis i got on irregular sale broke down on me after a couple dozen wearings, i will never buy an irregular/defected item on sale again!). if i go to "u.k.", look for me in the no-brand/young fabulous and broke t-shirt section. but you'll never see me at divisoria trying to get a good deal for an ersatz lv. i tried to wing it before, but it just doesn't work. trust me. REAL THING, OR UNBRANDED AT ALL. it's not really about the brand you wear, but whether or not it fits your body, your way of thinking, your budget and the weather report. in short, your PERSONAL STYLE.
at least i had my good friends commiserating with me. i saw camille, tj, mark m, mark u, and josh while i was doing my solo shit in gateway, and they helped me forget that i did such a stooopid stooopid thing like this.
my best bitches (from left: camille, josh, and yo):
and my best bitches, batch 2 (from left, clockwise: mark m, tj, mark u, and camille [again!:-)]):
(thanks josh, for sending me the photos! i know i should get myself a new digicam to replace my busted old one, but with the shitload of options out there, i just never have the time. ;-))
the night ended well for all of us. we busted our throats caterwauling "wannabe," "thank god i found you," "dreaming of you," "that don't impress me much," "through the rain" and all our other guilty pleasures at timezone until the mall closed down on us. but not until we hogged dozens of restaurants looking for that perfect dinner. they had the jamaican patties, donuts, and that sickeningly sweet taco bell non-alcoholic margarita drink. i had doppio iced mocha at gloria jean's with ysl lights. the caffeine and cigarettes diet works, people!
(i like this photo, i look so butch in here, and it shows off my newly-recovered jawline nice, although i still have that irritating cheek fat. but now that i'm back at the gym, gaunt workout-bullimic overtrained male model look, here i come!)
(one of these things (a large gloria jean's iced white mocha) will get all your day's calories. and with a pack of ysls handy, who needs food?)
btw, really sorry if you can't hear anything in this blog. my radio blog server's down at the moment. i just contacted the nice people at global web, and it looks like they're doing maintenance work. anyway, it'll be back up soon. patience is a virtue. coming from someone with no concept of patience, ha!
xananananana
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