周四周弹出式商店丨瑞士苏黎世丨FREITAG

Going full circle is a bit of a thing at FREITAG. Similar to the brand’s increased drive to achieve the highest eco-friendly standards, but we’ll talk more about that in a future post, it has pulled a prank, and quite brilliantly so, on a copycat from the past. This year, FREITAG celebrates its 30th anniversary, and ever so quirky and cheekily irreverent, the bag manufacturer has mirrored a shady action in 1996 by one of Switzerland‘s biggest supermarket chains to mark the festive occasion. In that particular year, FREITAG co-founder Markus Freitag came across an exact copy of a FREITAG bag at a local branch of the aforementioned supermarket while shopping for his daily groceries. Remarkably, the counterfeit was even called Donnerstag or ‘Thursday’, an undeniable reference to FREITAG, which means ‘Friday’ in German.

Mass-produced and crafted from flimsy new plastic, the concept and idea of the Donnerstag bag was light years away from FREITAG‘s brand values and objectives, and caused quite a stir in the then-fledgling company. Thanks to a wave of sympathy from FREITAG fans and friends, in addition to media coverage, a court case was avoided and the supermarket chain voluntarily pulled the blatant copy off the shelves. But now, the tables have completely turned, and the notorious Donnerstag has become the centre piece of the FREITAG‘s 30th anniversary event which has been aptly dubbed Donnerstag Weeks. The FREITAG flagship store in Zurich‘s former industrial West district has been transformed into a fitting supermarket setting, serving as a pop-up store for the limited-edition F13-D COPY CAT a.k.a. Donnerstag bag.

Mind you, is based on the brand’s F13 TOP CAT model, which is included in the design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and comes with a rather unique Donnerstag label. As a limited-edition bag of only 400, it’ll be sold exclusively at this pop-up store. Since the hatchet was buried long ago, FREITAG will quite generously donate 99% of the profits from this special anniversary bag to the supermarket chain’s cultural foundation. The Donnerstag Weekends pop-up store sees an outdoor sign which flaunts the supermarket chain’s font and colour scheme, while indoor, an entire shelving unit presents the anniversary bag and other FREITAG merchandise is interspersed with veggies. An actual cashier counter with conveyor belt completes the setting (open through Sep 30).

Images © FREITAG

Photography: Philip Frowein