He’s portrayed as one of Dubai’s most successful millionaires in the Netflix reality TV show Dubai Bling. But radio personality and founder of Fade Fit snacks, Kris Fade, said he’ll never spend $4,000 dollars on a bag.
“I would never pay AED14,800 ($4,000) for luggage. I would never pay that much for luggage at all… No matter how much money I have, I would never pay that much,” he said on his breakfast radio show The Kris Fade Show on Tuesday.
Fade, real name Kristan Fahd, was visiting the fashion avenue, which he described as the “expensive area” in the Dubai Mall with his wife Briana over the weekend when he spotted high end luggage store Rimowa.
“I saw this luggage store and I went, let’s go and have a look at this thing. And the luggage, it looked beautiful… I did that thing where they tell you the price and then in your head your mind is like exploding, but you just got to show like hey, you know, maybe I could get it,” he said, before expressing shock at the AED14,800 ($4,000) price tag.
“I googled it yesterday because I wanted to work out why that was and the sales rep was so good… Supposedly if you know luggage and you’re walking around with a Rimowa, it’s like driving around in a Rolls-Royce but for luggage. I was like man, AED14,800,” he said.
Dubai Bling vs Dubai Reality
The radio host was then challenged by a caller who said Dubai Bling promoted a lifestyle where cast members are able to afford expensive luggage.
“I’m listening to you saying you were quite shocked by the price of the luggage… it’s quite ironic coming from a man who did Dubai Bling to promote a bling lifestyle, who thinks that Dubai is based on bling. So I’m just surprised that you’re surprised,” caller Miriam said.
She added, “the way you portrayed Dubai Bling was as if everybody is a millionaire in this town who can afford AED14,000 luggage. So, I think this was a good reality for you so maybe you can do a show that it’s not so much Dubai Bling but it’s Dubai reality.”
Fade responded that “to get money, you don’t spend money”.
He said: “I make enough money now to buy that 10 times, but I won’t buy it. I won’t pay AED14,800 ($4,000) for luggage; that’s the point,” he told listeners.
“So, if you believe it or not, Dubai always has that rep of being the city of not only “gold” but the city of opportunity, and that’s what my storyline on that show was: to portray the opportunity.
“I came here with nothing, I really did. I came here with nothing, Miriam and instead of looking at it as a negative… put another hat on for the moment and just look at the opportunity that it created for most of that cast. Many of that cast came here with nothing. And they worked their way up from nothing,” Fade said.
Despite facing backlash for its promotion of a luxurious lifestyle, Dubai Bling has amassed over 45 million hours of watching globally, making it the most watched Netflix show to come out of the GCC. It has attracted fans and critics alike.
Prior to becoming the UAE’s most well-known, and arguably most successful radio presenter, Kris Fade worked as a dishwasher, among other low paying jobs. He started out in radio by cleaning a station’s dungeon in Australia, before working his way up to Dubai’s Virgin Radio station.