What is a long black, and why did the Heytea Fan Zhendong merchandise sell out so fast

Heytea named table tennis champion Fan Zhendong as its Champion Ambassador and then launched a limited collaboration set. Buyers who ordered the designated set during the afternoon tea window received a fridge magnet and luggage tag bearing his image. Merchandise sold out within minutes, and many fans compared the scramble to buying concert tickets.

Store employees said each branch received very few items, so staff could not obtain any either. Some netizens found marked-up merchandise on second-hand platforms listed before the official promotion, raising suspicions of insider stockpiling. Whether the cause was thin supply or deliberate scarcity, dissatisfaction is spreading and the collaboration strategy now faces scrutiny.

A collaboration between Heytea and table tennis champion Fan Zhendong has triggered a buying frenzy, with limited-edition fridge magnets and luggage tags selling out within minutes of release, prompting many fans to complain that it was as hard as grabbing concert tickets. Store employees revealed that each branch received very few of the merchandise, so even they couldn't get their hands on any. However, some netizens discovered that marked-up merchandise had already appeared on second-hand platforms, listed even earlier than the official promotion, raising suspicions that insiders were holding back stock for profit. Whether it was insufficient stock or hunger marketing, consumer dissatisfaction is spreading, and the brand's collaboration strategy is facing a test.

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Earlier, Heytea officially announced that table tennis world champion Fan Zhendong would serve as Heytea Champion Ambassador and invited him to a store as a one-day store manager. The news quickly drew widespread attention and discussion among fans, many of whom regretted not being able to visit in person to taste milk tea made by the champion himself.

Riding on this still-lingering buzz, Heytea recently launched a champion limited-edition set in collaboration with Fan Zhendong. It is understood that the campaign is themed "Relaxing 3:30," and consumers only need to purchase the designated set during the afternoon tea period on the event day to receive a limited-edition fridge magnet and luggage tag printed with Fan Zhendong's image.

So merchandise enthusiasts waited in front of their phones on a weekday afternoon, and as soon as the stores went live, they immediately connected to their company's Wi-Fi and rushed to place orders. But perhaps because too many people ordered at the same time, many reported that Heytea stores in their area showed sold out within just a few minutes after the set went on sale.

One user shared that, in order to get the merchandise as quickly as possible, they arrived at a nearby Heytea store before 3:30, but when they ordered right on the dot, the mini-program showed no stock. Clinging to a sliver of hope, the user went into the store to ask, and the staff told them the set had already sold out and that the merchandise displayed on the counter had all been claimed.

Users who went through this round of the campaign couldn't help but exclaim that they never expected grabbing a collaborative fridge magnet to be harder than grabbing concert tickets. In response, staff hurried to explain that the amount of merchandise Heytea allocated to each store this time was extremely limited—a store had only a few luggage tags and fridge magnets—and that even internal employees who wanted them might not be able to beat the astonishingly fast merchandise hunters. "Don't even mention it—I'm a store employee and I started work at four, refreshed at 3:29, and still didn't get one."

However, this explanation from Heytea employees did not fully dispel users' doubts about "black box" operations by insiders.

Some netizens posted screenshots of search pages on second-hand platforms for Fan Zhendong fridge magnets, showing that prices for this merchandise far exceeded the price of the set itself. What was surprising was that these high-priced items were listed earlier than the brand's official promotion, leading some to speculate that Heytea insiders might have privately withheld merchandise originally allocated to offline stores to seek personal profit, which was why this limited-edition merchandise was so hard to get.

For a long time, brands choosing to collaborate with celebrities and influencers who come with their own traffic can easily attract large numbers of fans to place orders and snap up products. Therefore, in most people's view, Heytea—with its experience in multiple collaborations—should have clearly understood, when working with Fan Zhendong, the huge popularity of this household-name table tennis champion, and should also have been able to predict how many fans would want a collaborative piece of merchandise.

But customers learned from store employees that the amount of merchandise each store had was basically very small, which inevitably led people to suspect that the brand was using hunger marketing to deliberately make fans fight tooth and nail for the merchandise they wanted. They said that such an approach might fail to achieve the goal of using the collaboration to drive product sales, and instead could provoke user resentment toward the brand.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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