Shock following Adika's return: prices soared and the site will be closed on Saturday
The beloved fashion brand has returned to operations in an online-only format, but consumers were hit with a double shock following an unusual spike in prices and a surprising decision to block the site entirely during the Sabbath.
A surprising comeback intended to stir up consumer excitement has in recent days turned head-on against the fashion brand "Adika Studio". After the brand's operations were completely liquidated and closed in April 2024 by the Golf Group, a highly publicized return to the market was recorded. The new joint venture between the Golf Group and Yaniv Adam's marketing company (Omer Adam's father) operates in an online-only format through the new website and without physical branches. However, consumers who were waiting to see the beloved brand come back to life were hit with a double cultural shock: both an unusual spike in prices and a decision to close the purchasing server during the Sabbath.
Consumer bodies and veteran customers were surprised to discover that the return collection is priced at levels that do not resemble the accessible fast-fashion that characterized the brand in the past. Pricing of very basic items, such as t-shirts and sweatpants, in amounts ranging from 180 to 350 shekels and even more for a full set, sparked outrage on social platforms.
Many users rushed to upload videos and sharp responses, with one of them sharing: "Adika, back. And really, it's not in a bad way, you had beautiful things and I looked at the site now and there are beautiful things. But what is going on with the prices? Like, sorry, you are not Nike, and you are not some super brand. Really, not in a bad way, just a bit of a lack of awareness. You can't charge 500 shekels for a set of sweatpants and a sweatshirt! You can't! I'm sorry, but that's how you will bring yourselves back to closure again. That's my opinion. Just lower the prices and people will buy. And in general, everything has become terrible in this country."
Alongside the anger over the price hike, another blow came from the disappearance of physical stores and the lack of ability to try on clothes before purchasing, alongside a feeling that the brand has lost its original identity. The discourse focused on the gap between the basic product and the price tag attached to it. Another user on social networks expressed her astonishment at the new collection, "Wow, I am so not envious of Adika right now. Like, they are burying them online, but I am really wondering what they were thinking when they took the simplest white t-shirt there is, priced it at 200 shekels and like expected us to say 'Oh my god, I must buy it!'? No. I don't have to buy it. Like really, go into their story for a second, go into the comments, it's not pleasant to read. I read everything, it's not pleasant to read at all. Like, Adika's father, Roi Arif, if his son just got married now, he is sitting there in Italy, I don't know where he is, and he is like opening the Insta, and he is like 'Oh my god, you uploaded this to the air?', and then like 'Oh shit, what did I do? I will have to buy a football team.' Like, yesterday when I just saw the prices of the sweatpants, I said 'No way, I used to buy from Adika a lot. I wouldn't pay such a price for sweatpants.' So I went and checked, it's really a small fraction of my orders, I used to order from them a lot. I will move aside for a second, go over the prices and see, like, what astronomical differences. I'm moving. Saw it? In short, a delusion of a lifetime. Also, there are no physical stores where I can try on, like, and check the quality of the product, also it's insanely expensive, and also, like, it doesn't look like Adika at all. The connection to Adika is, like, purely coincidental, the clothes don't look like the same clothes."
If the pricing storm wasn't enough, the brand decided on another move that triggered a wave of mixed reactions and boycott threats from secular customers: a complete shutdown of the purchasing option on the site from Friday until Saturday night. The decision was made at the request of the brand's new presenter, singer Odia Azulay, a move that recalls the veto previously imposed by Omer Adam on performances on the Sabbath at the Festigal. The move was perceived by many as an interesting resonant step, but one that creates an internal contradiction with the identity of the brand itself. A user on the network addressed the controversial step, "What? The Adika website will be closed during the Sabbath at the request of the singer Odia? Well, it's impossible to ignore this. There is a new trend of strengthening here, and there is no doubt that Odia is one of the central pioneers of the trend. Adika is risking losing quite a bit of its revenue. The first in the country to make such a crazy move is of course Omer Adam, who imposed a veto on the Festigal that he does not perform on the Sabbath, and to this day the Festigal does not perform on the Sabbath thanks to Omer Adam. In the end, it is a very, very interesting move by Adika, because they are a bit contradicting the values of the brand itself. In the end, the clothes sold on the site are not modest, so how does this connect, actually, with the brand itself?"
