The Amazon Coat: Coat made by Chinese company goes viral in the US

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A coat made by a Chinese company has become a huge hit in the United States. It's sold on Amazon, getting thousands of five-star customer reviews. CGTN's Karina Huber finds out the reasons behind its growing popularity.

Stand on a street corner in New York and within minutes you'll inevitably spot what's been called the 'it coat' of the season. Sold on Amazon for $139.99 it has become a massive hit. Known as the 'Amazon coat', it is made by Chinese company Orolay. It says the coat raked in five million dollars in sales in January. That's more than what it made in all of 2017.

KARINA HUBER NEW YORK "The trend reportedly started in this building, the 92nd Street Y, on New York's Upper East Side, an affluent area. A preschool teacher reportedly was seen wearing the coat, which she saw posted on a popular travel blog. Then mothers across the neighborhood started wearing it too."

The coat has been compared to those made by Canada Goose that sell for close to a thousand dollars. Experts say part of the appeal is its affordability.

JONATHAN WILLIAMS, ADJUNCT PROFESSOR FASHION INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY "In American retail, we know that actually wealthy consumers really like a good deal. So, that's very different than other places in the world where people are willing to pay top price right off the bat."

New York magazine picked up on the trend, so did The New York Times. Then the coat went viral. More than 66-hundred people have reviewed it on Amazon and it has its own fan-created Instagram account with more than 2700 followers.

JONATHAN WILLIAMS, ADJUNCT PROFESSOR FASHION INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY "The coat itself is not terribly interesting but because people were talking about it going viral, it went viral."

Social media expert Natalie Zfat says Orolay benefited greatly from a new program that incentivizes bloggers to post about items sold on Amazon.

NATALIE ZFAT SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERT "They're not just posting about the coat because they like it, they're of course posting about it because they earn an affiliate commission every time a coat is sold on their channels."

That commission is ten percent. That's almost 14 dollars for every Orolay coat sold."

NATALIE ZFAT SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERT "So that might not sound like a lot of money to me and you. But I think if you have a million followers or even 50,000 followers and you can move 20 units a day, well there's your vacation at the end of the month."

The Orolay coat may be the first example of an Amazon item going viral. But it won't be the last. The fashion press is now buzzing about a 25-dollar bathing suit sold on Amazon, claiming it's gone viral. Karina Huber, CGTN, New York.