Last week, Alexander Wang collected a €100,000 ($147,000) prize, after winning the 2009 Swiss Textiles Award. His is the second American design house to nab Central Europe's most coveted fashion prize, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this month. New York-based Wang beat out a field of six candidates, including Vogue favorites Thakoon and Ohne Titel.

Kate Mulleavy, one-half of last year's winner Rodarte, presented the award to Wang. Mulleavy told British Vogue:

"The investment made such a difference for us in the past year — we have taken the business in a direction we just couldn't have otherwise — and I'm sure it will change things for Alex too."Continue reading...

With the molasses-paced US economy continuing to disappoint, Wal-Mart is the latest brand to look to boost its bottom line by growing internationally. Wal-Mart isn't the only brand finding a little good news outside the U.S. of A: Coca-Cola's saw third quarter growth in India (+37%), China (+15%) and Brazil (+3%).

Wal-Mart plans for more than two-thirds of its new square footage growth to occur outside the US. Its stores can be found in 15 countries, including the Japan, China, the UK, Brazil and Mexico. In fact, 2009 was the first year in which the retailer added less square-footage in the US than abroad.Continue reading...

HTC is ready for its closeup. In a way. Advertisements debuting this week from the young smartphone brand place “You” front and center, with the HTC brand a solid second.

With ads running across 20 countries, the Taiwanese smartphone marks their first foray into advertising with the tagline, “You don’t need to get a phone. You need a phone that gets you.”

As part of their “Quietly Brilliant” brand positioning, the new campaign focuses on “You,” the consumer. Rather than technical capability or product specifics, the “You” campaign trumpets the emotional connections made possible through smartphones. The two television commercials are riveting, one shot from a phones-eye-view, portraying individuals from various walks of life using their phones for work, life and play.

But the relatively unknown brand should be more boisterous. Currently, their best performing models feature no branding by cellular providers. Consumers would never guess that the myTouch, Dash, or Wing – all offered by T-Mobile – are HTC products. The manufacturer has better branded their Hero phone through Sprint. If they expect the "You" campaign to garner greater brand awareness and market share, it will all be for naught without consistent branding through cellular providers.Continue reading...

It pains me to say this as a lifelong Mets fan, but the city of Philadelphia is on the rise.

Make no mistake, Philly has always been one of the best cities in America, but its cultural significance, like any major city, ebbs and flows. The cult hit "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" was just picked up for syndication by Comedy Central after it became a breakout phenomenon on the FX network. The Philadelphia Phillies were last year's baseball champions for the first time in 28 years, and are headed back to the World Series again this year.

It wasn't always this sunny in Philadelphia. The Phillies faced an epic collapse, not unlike the one the Mets did in 2007, back in 1964. They had only been in the World Series twice in over one hundred years of the team's history, and had the dubious distinction of being the first sports franchise to amass 10,000 losses. The Phillies have had 72 losing records, including 16 consecutive from 1933-1948. There have been a lot of lean years for the Phillies. Cubs fans may still be waiting for their championship, but at least they've had ten trips to the World Series to attempt it.Continue reading...

Just twenty years ago, would anyone have thought it conceivable that major, non-Chinese NBA stars would be sponsored by a Chinese brand? Probably not. But Chinese athletic brand Peak is going very public. In many ways.

Quanzhou-based Peak Sport Products was founded in 1988 after its founder's deal to produce for Nike fell through. Ironic, because according to a 2008 Credit Suisse survey, Peak now ranks alongside Nike (and Li Ning) as one of the three most recognized sports shoe brands in all of China.Continue reading...