Do you remember that L.A. episode of Sex in the City where Samantha takes her friends along to buy the fake designer bags out of the trunk of a car? Her fake Fendi then gets her into a lot of trouble at a party at the Playboy mansion. Fake designer merchandise can be really hard to tell from the real stuff at a casual glance, and there's the appeal in them. But is this really just a harmless little activity that you can use to save some money and still look good? Or is there more to this than meets the eye?
Walk along any of the more affordable shopping streets in Manhattan, and you're sure to be waylaid by some oily salesman who wants to take you to a backroom for "special offers" on fake designer bags, scarves, jewelry and sunglasses. If you bite, you'll find that this method of doing business can really appear sleazy, but that you'll probably find what you're looking for. It's all part of a half-trillion-dollar international gray market pipeline; the problem is, the government believes that the money that changes hands here actually funds terrorism. At a time when we routinely hear of Apple or Nike taking action on their outsourcing partners in Asia who ignore labor rights, what hope do you feel there is for the children in the Asian factories working to produce these fake designer bags, getting a fair hearing? They don't even have a major label attached to their factory that might demand better standards.
These days, in an economy that's really hurting, the knockoffs don't even have to be of $5000 Prada handbags; people are so poor these days that they will even buy the fake ordinary bags (leave alone fake designer bags) and even fake Nike sneakers that would cost $60 to buy it at a proper store. People can't stop talking about how they're even selling fake toilet paper.
This depressing shift in the counterfeiting industry completely ties in with the state the economy is in China; with fewer orders for what they make around the world, there are thousands of factories that sit with no orders to fill. They know that making fake stuff is illegal and they could get caught, but what can they do? Producing something, at least takes care of the expenses. There are all kinds of tricks that sleazy retailers in the US will use to sell this stuff. For instance, a designer bag by Prada is something you absolutely well know will cost thousands of dollars; and if there is someone in a back alley selling it to you for $120, you are under no illusions that you're being sold the real thing. But what if they were selling you Kooba bagags for $120? The real thing cost about $300 - this is at least somewhat believable; and people go buy, under the impression that these are the real thing that are somehow priced right. The sellers profit at both ends - to begin with, what they buy doesn't cost much; and then, they can sell them at inflated prices just to get people to think they are the real thing.
To support this industry in fake designer bags, the retailers even set up fake websites with very authentic looking layouts and pictures stolen from the original websites. It's impossible for the police to keep an eye on what goes on on line. As with most things these days, it's all caveat emptor - buyer beware.
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