My contribution to the German Issue of Sportswear International

It is somehow inconceivable, that we are still talking about the difference between West Germany. Come on! The reunification of the Federal Republic will soon be celebrating its 30th anniversary. The biggest current consumers of jeans, sportswear and casualwear cannot even actively remember that their home country was once divided; it is more or less just a chapter in their history textbooks. At best, it’s a story their parents tell at the dinner table, in which some talk about how hard they had it back in the day, while others reminisce about the good old days when they had everything they needed. Admittedly, although Germany was only divided for 41 years, less than two generations, in 1990 the state had to bring together two very contrary realities – on the one side, a prosperous, advanced West, and on the other, an economically run-down and culturally disrupted East, a scenario that even the best science fiction author could not have imagined. Twenty-eight years and more than two trillion euros of rebuilding investment later, the former GDR has obviously caught up with its supposed bigger brother in terms of infrastructure and appearance. More than that: made anew it even surpasses good old Germany with its new technologies and brightly lit streets. But sprucing up the former East doesn’t necessarily make it a successful market. It’s the culture, consisting of tradition and entrenched structures, that has to grow and its absence creates an invisible but perceptible border, which is especially apparent when looking at the minutiae of society – at retail businesses for consumer goods, for instance. (...)