The actual tea on the Payless Prank

Payless (yes, as in the discount shoe store typically in malls or shopping centers) has just become the troll hero of the modern era.

In order to prove shoppers will pay top dollar just for a high-end label, the brand hired an ad agency who fabricated “Palessi”, a fake boutique specializing in shoes.

Then they invited a group of the West Coast's top influencers to shop the brand's new styles. The new styles they were purchasing? Just $20-$40 kicks from Payless.

Check out the experiment below for full context.



About 60 fashion influencers came to the Palessi Boutique opening, which following one Facebook ad, was said to have a waiting list of a few thousand people, which was set up at a luxury mall in Los Angeles. Many influencers actually marveled at the quality of "Paleessi" shoes, describing the Payless pairs as, “Just stunning”, “Sophisticated.”, and “Elegant”. "I can tell it was made with high-quality material.", one influencer said lovingly holding a faux leather sneaker.

The real shocker was that so many of these influencers were more than willing to pay 1800 percent markup for Payless shoes (of course, unbeknownst to them!). One influencer even willingly paid $645 for a single pair of "Palessi" shoes while many others dropped several hundreds of dollars per pair, a price tag the influencers paid gladly, by the way. Don't worry, all of the unknowing influencers were fully refunded their money at the end of the experiment as well as pay to appear on the discount shoe store's commercial and a pair of Payless shoes for free.

But the results were still hilarious, but also very telling.

The fact that these influencers really could not tell the difference between an “Italian boutique quality” shoe and a Payless one but we’re willing to drop rent and car payment amounts of money to get them shows so many things: our consumeristic fascination and worship of labels, the unrealistic belief that for something to have real value and quality that it must be expensive and that luxury should always come at a high price.

This Palessi experiment debunks each those notions.

By taking what was once perceived as cheap, throwaway shoes when they bare the logo and prices of Payless and literally slapping on an Italian label and marking them up almost 2000%, while nothing within the shoes themselves changed, it is our perceptions and notions of luxury, quality, and value that are directly challenged. Notice that the shoes were not altered in any way. Nothing was added or taken away from the shoes themselves.

And yet a sticker price and a label changed so much. Enough to fool top influencers for them to cough up some serious dough. The power of branding is real, yall.

Payless is not alone in this style of prank. Last year, Suave fooled many a beauty blogger, writer, and influencer with its EVAUS prank where they packaged their same hair products into minimalistic packaging and sent them to tastemeakers to see if they would notice the difference. (To which many of these tastemeakers were BIG MAD about being fooled, the same type of influencers that are big mad about this Palessi prank.)

With the rise of companies like Brandless, who offer the same quality products you would get from your market or beauty store but because they don't have a brand label, cost a fraction of the price, we might be witnessing the impending downfall of the label as the determining point of value.

So what are the takeaways from this hilarious prank?

Just because something is expensive does not make it good or bad. 
It literally just makes it expensive. I have owned what some consider as low-end products that I have had for a decade and have seen people pay top dollar for something that fell apart on them after a few wears. A price tag does not really determine the worth of a thing, but rather the value the brand, and if convinced, we, place on an item.

Just because the store looks pricey or fancy does not make its products of quality. 
It is literally just a bunch of products in a store with fancy decor. The Palessi store was filled with dark shelves, light boxes, avant-garde artwork and beautiful flooring. And all they were selling were up priced Payless pairs.

Just because its European does not make it quality. 
Sure, Gucci, Chanel, Goyard, Fendi, and other luxury brands hail from Europe. But that does not mean that every product ever produced in Europe is of that quality. Same as here in the states, same as anywhere.

Just because a bunch of fashionable people rant and rave over something does not make them right.
These are supposed to be the top tastemakers of the West Coast. Los Angelos, one of the fashion capitals of the country. These influencers who may or may not have been exposed to various brands and labels, were completely fooled by Payless shoes in a fancy setting. They raved about the quality feel of a faux leather sneaker for goodness sake (not that faux leather means not quality, but certainly not $600 worth of quality).

To be honest, I personally enjoy fooling the bougie and the stuck-up, and watching them gloat over glorified Payless was oddly satisfying and reassuring. I have always believed and preached that quality and price were two separate entities and that value was in the eye of the beholder. For  me, Payless has proven itself a viable mainstay in this experiment, and those who enjoy shopping there should not feel anything but sweet vindication.

Payless as a brand has been around since 1956 and with all of that accumulated wisdom, still has a lot to teach us.