The encyclopedia · Marketing & Brand · Marketing decision · 2020-2021
A streetwear brand traded on 'Chinatown Market' as slang for fakes, then had to rename
Chinatown Market's name drew a petition and a designer campaign over its echo of counterfeit slang; it renamed to MA®KET, then bought itself back in 2026
Chinatown Market · 2021-08
What happened
Mike Cherman founded Chinatown Market in 2016, a name that referenced New York's Canal Street as slang for counterfeit goods. In 2020–2021, a Change.org petition drew more than 3,000 signatures, and designers Phillip Lim and Humberto Leon joined Diet Prada in publicly campaigning against the name, arguing it traded on a stereotype at a moment of rising anti-Asian violence.
The brand renamed itself MA®KET in August 2021, a process the founder later said pulled in outside investors to fund the rebrand and rebuild recognition from scratch. Cherman told Complex the controversy had directly hurt the business.
On July 30, 2026, the company announced it had bought itself back from those investors and reverted to the Chinatown Market name. Cherman said: 'Once we let the money guys come in, we lost sight of the essence of what made the brand special... in the name of profitability.'
Why it happened
- The brand's name leaned on a real stereotype about counterfeit goods, which read as clever marketing internally but as a slur on a specific community once outside voices examined it.
- Funding the forced rebrand meant bringing in outside investors, and the founder later said their priorities pulled the brand away from what had made it work in the first place.
The lesson
A name built on a stereotype can work as an inside joke until it reaches the audience it stereotypes — and reversing course under pressure can cost more than getting it right the first time.
Sources
- Yahoo Entertainment | Chinatown Market Reverts to Original Name
- Complex | Chinatown Market Founder Reveals Brand's New Name
- GQ | The Chinatown Market Name Controversy
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