You can buy literally anything there. Sometimes at surprisingly low prices and sometimes at inflated prices. Why? Because it is not at all easy to search for goods there and sort them at the lowest price. After all, the idea is to sell as expensive as possible, not as cheap as possible, right? Once you have found the right offer and the price seems attractive, you click on the buy button and.... you wait. Not so long ago, this might have taken several months; nowadays, a few to several days are enough.
Chinese products are 99% copies of designs created with great difficulty by designers from other parts of the world. The problem is the absolute lack of copyright protection laws in China, which has made it quite normal for them to make copies. In a programme, a reporter asked the owner of a Chinese company what their development strategy was. The Chinese man answered without thinking: "We want to make copies of the best products in the world". "And what is your development strategy for the future?" - the reporter asked. "To create even better copies!" - replied the Chinese man.
Of course they are. China has taken over a huge part of this market. Customers are increasingly reporting to us that the cross stitch kits we produce can be bought on Chinese platforms quite a lot cheaper than in our shop. Not only our designs are copied, but also the designs of the companies we work with, which also reflects on our company.
Our designers create the pattern for the cross stitch from a few weeks to a few months, and the threads and other kit components are completed by hand by our employees. Meanwhile, Chinese companies download the graphics of our pattern, rework it with an automatic machine, add Chinese threads and sell it all over the world. Most of the production is automated and therefore much cheaper. We create, and the profits go to Asia. This is unfortunately the sad truth of this unequal competition.
We were very curious to see if the Chinese manufacturer really makes great copies of our products. We decided to do a test and compare the two kits, focusing on the quality of the kit components and the end result. After all, when we buy a cross stitch kit, we are counting on the cross stitch to be exactly as it appears on the product page. The cross stitch kit with the print 'Watercolour hydrangea' was chosen for the test and after only a dozen days or so, cross stitching could begin.
1. Product photo - the graphic used to present the product is exactly the same as our photo. The only difference is the inferior quality of the photo. We are therefore entitled to expect exactly the same design.
2. Pattern - from the very beginning of the cross stitch, we knew that the Chinese pattern was created from the so-called automatic, i.e. the picture was transformed without any correction by the designer. The pattern is kind of fuzzy, there are a lot of single crosses, which gives a "pixelated" effect, and the colours are kind of random.
3. Canvas print - our print reflects the colours used in the pattern and is made on 100% cotton fabric. The Chinese print is accurate but very bright, shimmers in the eyes and tires the eyes. However, it must be acknowledged that in this respect the manufacturer can be commended for the care of the print and the clear positioning of the symbols. In addition, the Chinese canvas is artificial, rather made of polyester, and shines strongly, which makes it more striking to the eye than the cross stitch itself.
4. Threads - Coricamo uses very good quality cotton threads made by Ariadna. The Chinese threads copies the colours of the DMC, but when comparing it to the corresponding shades of the DMC you can see that they are two different shades. In this case, the copy unfortunately leaves a lot to be desired. The thread is made of poor quality cotton - it has a lot of knots and kinks, is heavily hairy and often tangles and breaks off. In general, it feels more like poor-quality fine yarn than a mouline type thread. 
5. Needles - we received 3 needles in the Chinese kit, which unfortunately did not stand the test of time and they all broke quite quickly. Most of the pattern was created using our needle. Our needle is one, but of good quality.
6. Canvas washing - the Coricamo print does not require washing, although you can refresh the cross stitch in lukewarm water. Certainly the print will not affect the colour of the threads or canvas. For the Chinese print, the manufacturer recommends soaking the embroidery in water below 30 degrees for about 3 hours. And this is where the problem arises... The embroidery soaked for 3 days. The lines and the print disappeared, but unfortunately the canvas turned a light pink colour and nothing has changed so far. In the case of the purple-pink hydrangea, this may not look tragic, but let's think, what would an image in, for example, strong yellow colours on a pink background look like? Not everyone may be happy with such an effect, especially as the manufacturer promises that the pattern will disappear.
7. Final result - after two months of embroidering, we were finally able to compare the image created from the Chinese kit and the image embroidered by one of our customers. The images are very different in their reflection of detail and choice of colours. Surely it's worth saving money by buying a Chinese kit and getting just this effect?
8. Financial effect - you may always want to save money, but let's think about a few things the next time we buy a cross stitch kit. European companies create cross stitch patterns with great dedication, looking for new inspiration and interesting solutions. By buying copies from China, we make it difficult for the right designers and manufacturers to keep their businesses in the European market. Employees will lose their jobs and no new designs will appear in the shops. We will be condemned to the same poor-quality Chinese copies over and over again. Do we really want that?
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