Goods of Desire

History

Architects by training, co-founders Douglas Young and Benjamin Lau wanted to do a lifestyle and home accessories store, with an aim to design and manufacture the products instead of shipping Chinese goods made in the West. They launched G.O.D. with their first store in an Ap Lei Chau warehouse (closed 2014) in 1996. Within two years, other locations followed including, Central, Tsim Sha Tsui (closed 2012). In 2001, G.O.D. opened its 20,000 square foot flagship store at Leighton Centre (closed 2013) in Causeway Bay, as well as lifestyle mall "Delay No Mall", also in Causeway Bay in 2008.

In 2008, the company introduced a 'Hong Kong Street Culture Gallery' at the Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre in Shek Kip Mei, Kowloon, also the location of their design studio and office. In 2009, another store opened at The Peak Galleria (closed 2015). In 2011, the company opened stores in Stanley Plaza and Sai Kung. In July 2012, they expanded overseas and opened their 6,000 square foot flagship store (closed 2015) in Singapore's historical riverside Clarke Quay. G.O.D. opened a store in PMQ, the historic heritage building in Soho, in 2014 and in the same year returned to Causeway Bay opening another store on Sharp Street East close to Times Square.

In 2015, G.O.D. expanded in Asia once again by opening three stores in Taiwan and two pop-up stores in Hong Kong - one at the Hong Kong International Airport in the Departures Hall and the other in Lab Concept in Admiralty. In the beginning of 2016, G.O.D. opened a store in the MH Mall in Shenzhen, China.

Concept

Taking inspiration from both the condensed urban centres and rural environments of Asia, G.O.D. is influenced by the concept of the eastern lifestyle as an alternative to the western way of living. The idea of such a cultural contradiction is especially prevalent in a city like Hong Kong, a city that boasts a modernised way of life combined with traditional Chinese practices. Young wanted to build a brand not based on traditional images of Hong Kong and believes that "the most successful brands tend to incorporate national identity. Not many Hong Kong brands actually feel very Hong Kong. I want to do something different: to give ourselves some pride and some respect. Some of our signature items have a quirky Hong Kong feel – they are unmistakable."

Young also said in an interview with Hong Kong Trade Development Council that "I'm trying to push Hong Kong traditions, to make the ordinary and mundane into something extraordinary. When I hear people saying 'wow' about my products, it's great because it shows Hong Kong's flexibility." The intention is to provide 'something desirable' that the customers 'have not even imagined before'.

Products

G.O.D.'s core range of lifestyle products are designed in-house, and their product range consists mostly of fashion, home accessories and premium gifts. The designs and prints are inspired by old and new aspects of Hong Kong culture, including products themed with Chinese "Double Happiness" characters, newspaper classifieds, retro local product packaging, 1950s advertisements, old letter boxes. Such products includes "Bishop" and "Rook" bean bags, inspired by Chinese chess and pencil case in the design of old-school Chinese ballet flats.

In 2003, the company introduced its trademark slogan, "Delay No More". The phrase is a homophonic translation of the Cantonese profanity díu néih lóuh móuh (屌你老母) "fuck your (old) mother", but in English it is a call to action; and it is emblazoned on T-shirts and other products.

From 2009 to 2014, G.O.D. collaborated with powerhouse Hong Kong bakery, Maxim's, to design mooncakes for the Chinese Mid-autumn festival. They came up with presenting the traditional treats in the shape of bottoms in eight different designs, but still filled with traditional white lotus seed paste and salted yolks.

In 2013, G.O.D. debuted the wildly popular Mahjong Box Pineapple Cake Gift Box, which were all snapped up within days of its debut. The Majong Box Pineapple Cake Gift Box was jointly created by Goods of Desire and Mei-Xin Fine Goods in Hong Kong.

Crossover projects

In June 2009, G.O.D. collaborated with Starbucks to create a store with a "Bing Sutt Corner" at their outlet on Duddell Street in Central. It is a concept that fuses the retro Bing Sutt, a Hong Kong teahouse, style with the contemporary look of a coffeehouse. The coffee company states that, "This very unique Starbucks store has been built as a collaborative project with the quintessential Hong Kong brand G.O.D. (Goods of Desire). It is a celebration of Hong Kong's roots and spirit".

For the 2012 Hong Kong Sevens, G.O.D. teamed up with sportswear brand Kukri Sports to produce merchandising for the tournament. The products, carried the specially designed "Kukri x G.O.D." logo, which featured elements of the original Hong Kong flag, and ranged from polo shirts, traditional Chinese jackets, boxers, Cheongsam-inspired ladies polo, messenger and tote bags. A percentage of sales went to the Foodlink Foundation, supported by both companies.

Starting in October 2012, Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific introduced a new range of amenity kits for Premium economy passagers, designed by G.O.D. The kits were designed as collectible with each bag being able to hook onto each other to form a wall-hanging accessory. The first two available were 'Joy' and 'Fortune', with designs that depict Chinese gods relaxing in-flight and of auspicious clouds respectively. They include 90% recycled plastic bottles and toothbrush made mainly from biodegradable corn starch and cellulose. Since then, G.O.D. has designed two bags every six months for the Cathay Pacific.

Exhibition

In September 2012, the brand in co-operation with Sino Art, held The Street Market Symphony Exhibition at Olympian City, their first solo art exhibition in a shopping mall. The exhibition used multi-media installations housed in large red lampshades, the iconic representation of Hong Kong's wet markets.

Controversy

In 2007, Young and seventeen employees were taken in by police for selling T-shirts bearing the logo "14K", the name of one of the city's triad crime syndicates. "Police claimed the shop had broken a section of an 1845 anti-triad law called the Societies Ordinance, which allows for the arrest of any person in possession of 'any books, accounts, writing, lists of members, seals, banners or insignia of or relating to any triad society.' Triad members still often carry such insignia – usually worn on the backs of shirts – that they show to shopkeepers in exchange for protection money."

Authorities "confiscated 88 shirts and more than 500 postcards printed with a "14K" logo – with the numbers written in Chinese characters – from the store's five offices and warehouse located in Central, Causeway Bay, Tsim Sha Tsui and Yuen Long." Young states that "[It] was all a misunderstanding and the shirts were actually referring to 14 karat gold". The 18 employees, including Young, were released the next day, and "their 14K T-shirts, are now collector's items," according to CNN Travel.