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Casetify

Casetagram Limited,[3] trading as Casetify, is a Hong Kong company that produces phone cases and electronic accessories.[4] Founded on 1 November 2011[3] by Wesley Ng and Ronald Yeung, the company first featured custom phone cases by using Instagram photos. It later expanded to selling accessories with different designs.[5] It has sold more than 25 million phone cases.[6][7][2][8][9]

The company is headquartered in Hong Kong and has offices in Los Angeles.[10][11]

History

Formerly Casetagram, Casetify's initial products were customized cell phone cases created using the purchaser's Instagram photos. Users could upload images from Instagram to an interface that allowed them create a custom collage or single-image case.[12] Users can now create custom cases using photos from Instagram and Facebook, or by directly uploading photographs and adding custom text.[12] Casetify also produces additional products such as tech accessories.

The company has brick and mortar locations in the United States,[13][14] Hong Kong (including a flagship store in the city's Landmark Mall complex), Japan, South Korea,[15] and a pop-up store in Bangkok, Thailand.[16][17]

Partnerships and collaborations

To create cases, Casetify works with galleries, museums, and artists. The Louvre collection features art by Leonardo da Vinci, Eugène Delacroix, and ancient works such as the Venus de Milo.[18] The Metropolitan Museum of Art partnered with Casetify to produce licensed products featuring the art of Vincent van Gogh, Degas, and Monet. Casetify has also partnered with individual artists including David Shrigley and Yayoi Kusama to produce collections featuring their work.[19][20]

Casetify has also collaborated with more than 100 companies,[21] including brands such as DHL,[22] Blanc & Eclare,[23] Pokémon,[24] Pixar,[25] Lucasfilm,[26] Vetements,[27] and K-pop groups BTS and Blackpink for product collections. Food companies such as Coca-Cola, Oreo, and Vegemite have also collaborated along with sporting companies such as the NBA, MLB, and the AFL. Collections commonly feature phone cases; however, other items such as watch straps and earbud cases are included in certain collaborations.[28]

Plagiarism allegations and lawsuit

On 23 November 2023, YouTuber Zack Nelson, known online as JerryRigEverything, uploaded a video where he announced[29][30] that he and case manufacturer dbrand had filed a multi-million dollar federal lawsuit against Casetify for plagiarizing product designs relating to their "Teardown" line of items. The video claimed that Casetify had either copied or modified multiple exclusive designs by dbrand and JerryRigEverything. Nelson shared numerous Easter eggs that were included within the dbrand designs that were present in Casetify products, as well as demonstrating that the designs from Casetify were direct replicas of dbrand, with only some slight changes made. Less than an hour following the release of the YouTube video, the Casetify website experienced downtime,[31] and upon restoration, the products featured in the video were no longer available.[32] Casetify later released a statement that they are investigating on the allegations and mentioned that the cause of the downtime was a DDOS attack.[33][34]

On the following day, Casetify was accused of stealing x-ray images of the iPhone X from iFixit's design and using it on their "X-Ray Case" line of items.[35][36]

External links

References

  1. CEO of multimillion-dollar company Casetify shares his No. 1 'super underrated' business tip www.cnbc.com, November 28, 2022^
  2. Tatler Asia. Wesley Ng Tatler Asia, retrieved January 6, 2023^
  3. Casetagram Limited :: Hong Kong :: OpenCorporates OpenCorporates, 2011-11-01, retrieved 2024-05-08^
  4. Lorraine Luk. Casetify: Design Your Own Band For Your Apple Watch WSJ, 2015-03-13, retrieved 2019-05-23^
  5. Lessons from Casetify on physical products and Hong Kong startups Tech in Asia, retrieved 2019-05-23^
  6. How Casetify founder Wesley Ng taps millennial trends South China Morning Post, 2017-11-20, retrieved 2019-05-23^
  7. Fletcher Crawford. 7 Reasons Why Casetify Is So Expensive (Full Guide) VeryInformed, 2022-06-08, retrieved 2022-10-20^
  8. Wonderland Staff. How Wes Ng Turned CASETiFY Into The Buzziest Tech Accessories Brand Wonderland, 2020-06-10, retrieved 2023-01-06^
  9. THE BRAND MAKING YOUR PHONE CASE STAND OUT DHL, 17 May 2019, retrieved 6 January 2023^
  10. Monique Tallon. Grid110 - How a Group of Diverse Entrepreneurs are Shaping the Tech Ecosystem in Downtown LA HuffPost, 2016-04-19, retrieved 2019-05-23^
  11. Alex Leung. An Interview with Wes Ng, CEO and co-founder of Casetify ALEXANDER LEUNG, 2015-12-05, retrieved 2019-05-23^
  12. Brandt Ranj. This startup lets you use your own photos to create a custom iPhone case for a little as $29 Business Insider, retrieved 2022-10-19^
  13. Casetify plots expansion plan, opening first US permanent store Inside Retail, 2022-11-14, retrieved 2022-12-06^
  14. Tech accessory brand Casetify opens doors on first retail location in the U.S. The Mercury News, 2022-11-18, retrieved 2022-12-06^
  15. Casetify launches its first South Korean store Inside Retail, 2022-01-14, retrieved 2022-11-14^
  16. Tiffany Lung. How Casetify Is Reinventing The Retail Experience Ahead Of The New iPhone 12 Launch Forbes, retrieved 2022-10-19^
  17. CASETiFY launches a pop-up in Thailand and our phones are ready for a makeover Lifestyle Asia Bangkok, 2022-09-27, retrieved 2022-10-19^
  18. Julia Marzovilla. The Louvre x Casetify Collection Is The Epitome Of Museumcore StyleCaster, 2021-02-23, retrieved 2022-12-08^
  19. CASETiFY Tap British Artist David Shrigley For Tongue-In-Cheek Techwear Collab Complex, retrieved 2022-12-08^
  20. CASETiFY x M+ Yayoi Kusama Special Capsule Collection StreetArtNews, 2022-11-09, retrieved 2022-12-08^
  21. Oliver Giles. "The World Rewards Creativity"—Casetify Co-founder Wesley Ng on How He Built One of the World's Biggest Tech Accessories Brands Tatler Asia, retrieved 2022-11-14^
  22. CASETiFY's new collab with DHL for Limited Edition iPhone Cases and Apple Watch Bands #legend, retrieved 2019-05-23^
  23. Casetify's Taps K-Pop Star Jessica Jung for Its Latest Collaboration HYPEBAE, December 20, 2018, retrieved 2018-12-22^
  24. Julia Alexander. Casetify reveals adorable pokémon phone cases in time for Detective Pikachu The Verge, 2019-05-02, retrieved 2019-05-23^
  25. Casetify 'Toy Story' iPhone 13 case review: Your favorite Pixar characters complement your phone AppleInsider, August 16, 2022, retrieved 2022-10-19^
  26. Casetify Star Wars collection: Transport the original trilogy with your mobile gear ZDNET, retrieved 2022-10-19^
  27. Vetements & CASETiFY Release Sticker-Covered iPhone Cases HYPEBEAST, January 4, 2019, retrieved 2019-05-23^
  28. Anna Tingley. BTS and Casetify Drop 'Permission to Dance' Collection Variety, 2022-07-25, retrieved 2022-10-19^
  29. I'VE BEEN ROBBED November 23, 2023^
  30. Emma Roth. Dbrand is suing Casetify for ripping off its Teardown designs The Verge, November 23, 2023^
  31. Zack Nelson. Have you ever been so embarrassed that you left the planet? 2023-11-23, retrieved 2023-11-23^
  32. Inside Out CASETiFY, retrieved 2023-11-23^
  33. Castify Official Statement^
  34. Ben Schoon. Casetify is 'investigating' the 'allegation' of its pretty obvious theft of Dbrand's designs 9to5Google, 2023-11-24, retrieved 2023-11-25^
  35. Inno Flores. iFixit Joins Dbrand in Accusations of iPhone X-Ray Theft Against Casetify Tech Times, 24 November 2023, retrieved 25 November 2023^
  36. Umar Shakir. The case of the stolen X-Ray cases is bigger and dumber than we thought. The Verge, 2023-11-24, retrieved 2023-11-25^