What does the Heytea Kusama sellout say about specialty coffee merch?
Heytea released a collaboration with Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama under the theme Add Some Boba to the World, merging polka dot art with the Boba Tea series. Limited mugs, metal charms and themed packaging sold out quickly, and resale prices rose on the secondhand market. It was Kusama's first tie-up with a Chinese new-style tea brand.
Some buyers who used scalpers questioned why order timestamps conflicted with store sold-out notices, and Heytea staff responded to the complaints. For tea and specialty coffee brands alike, the episode shows how limited merchandise can drive demand while inviting resellers, and how quickly a sold-out drop shifts from a marketing win into a service problem.
HEYTEA's recent collaboration with Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama has drawn widespread attention, with the two parties combining polka dot art with the Boba Tea series under the theme "Add Some Boba to the World." This marks the first cross-border collaboration between the 95-year-old Yayoi Kusama and a Chinese new-style tea beverage brand. Limited-edition items such as mugs and metal charms sold out quickly after launch, driving up prices on the secondhand market. Some consumers who used scalpers to place orders have raised doubts about the contradiction between order times and store sold-out notices. HEYTEA employees have responded to this, and the incident also reflects the scalper chaos behind the rush to buy tea brand collaboration merchandise.
▲
Click to follow | Daily specialty coffee culture magazine Coffee Workshop
Recently, HEYTEA launched a collaboration with the globally renowned and currently most influential Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, sparking considerable discussion in the tea beverage industry and attracting widespread attention from netizens.
It is understood that this collaboration centers on the theme "Add Some Boba to the World," merging Kusama's highly recognizable polka dot art with HEYTEA's signature Boba Tea series, making it an attempt rich in artistic flavor in the history of tea beverage collaborations. Notably, this is also the first cross-border collaboration between the 95-year-old Kusama and a Chinese new-style tea beverage brand.
In fact, when HEYTEA quietly changed its brand logo last week, many users had already picked up on the hint of a collaboration from this subtle change and were full of anticipation for the partnership. According to official statements, in addition to limited-edition packaging materials such as cups and paper bags, this event will also feature themed art merchandise including metal charms and mugs. Due to the limited quantity of merchandise, fans began preparing early for the rush to buy.
On the day the limited-edition sets went on sale, some consumers arrived at nearby stores early to ensure they could buy the limited-edition mug they wanted, becoming the first customer in the store to get one. Those unable to visit stores stayed glued to their phones, placing orders on mini-programs and third-party platforms on time, racing against the clock.
Due to fans' unprecedented enthusiasm for the limited-edition mugs featuring Kusama's iconic polka dot pumpkins, many users reported that some stores sold out instantly upon launch, and prices for these limited-edition items on the secondhand market subsequently soared. However, consumers determined to get the merchandise did not care much about the price; when unable to secure items themselves, they would rather turn to scalpers to fulfill their wishes.
One customer who placed an order right on time experienced exactly this situation. She mentioned that after failing to get the merchandise when the store opened in the morning, she turned to a secondhand platform at 10:35 AM and found a scalper to place an order on her behalf, ultimately successfully purchasing the mug she wanted.
However, after receiving the product, the customer discovered that the delivery order generation time shown on the outer packaging label was 10:37 AM, while according to her understanding, the store where the scalper successfully placed the order had already shown "mug set sold out" before 9 AM. These details raised her suspicions, leading her to speculate that when users successfully place orders through scalpers on secondhand platforms, store employees working with scalpers would relist the sets for scalpers to order, then resell them at higher prices to those who want the merchandise.
Many netizens also pointed out that certain collaboration events by tea brands that attract significant fan attention are easily targeted by people looking to profit from the opportunity. They snap up store-exclusive merchandise and then resell it at marked-up prices on the secondhand market. Therefore, situations where store employees collaborate with scalpers are not surprising.
In response to this matter, a HEYTEA employee explained that stores can indeed adjust the listing and delisting of limited-edition sets based on actual circumstances, but they believe that the "limited-edition set sold out" notice that netizens saw after 9 AM may not have been a deliberate manipulation by employees collaborating with scalpers, but rather could have been caused by employees failing to list the items on time within the designated period.
Image source: Xiaohongshu
Disclaimer: Some images in this article are from the internet. For some content on the website, such as images, we will respect the original copyright and indicate the source. However, due to the large volume, there may be individual images or texts that have not been credited in time. Please forgive us. If the original author has any disputes, they can contact the website for resolution. Once verified, we will immediately correct it. Compiled and edited by "Coffee Workshop." Please indicate the source when reposting. If there is any infringement, please inform us for removal. Thank you~!
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
