I was traveling overseas and I bought a pair of counterfeit adidas pants for 10 bucks or so. I have been wearing this for a while now and in my opinion it’s superior the adidas pants I normally buy at rebel sports for 100 bucks or so. The pockets are deeper and the logo is sewn in rather than one of those plasticy stick on things. Also the fabric hasn’t pilled yet which happens to my genuine adidas pants rather quickly.
The thing is they look just like the real branded goods, down the the labels inside. You really can’t tell them apart except maybe the fabric is a little thinner (which I actually like).
Are there places in NZ where I can buy counterfeit goods? I never realised they would be better than the real things.
Do you actually care about the branding? If you don’t just get the highly rated stuff on Temu/Aliexpress, it’s likely made in the same factories.
I do actually like the branding which is why I bought the counterfeit pants. I think they look nicer than the run of the mill sweatpants.
Oddly enough adidas changed the styling on their pants this year and I like the new designs less than the old ones so this makes the counterfeit ones even more desirable.
I’m not sure locally you can find counterfeit clothes easily, and they may be of variable quality if you do manage to find someone doing it without being shut down.
I do remember from my sneaker obsessed days that there were sellers on Taobao that sold “replica” sneakers. Not sure about cheaper end Adidas but I remember on reddit there was a sub for discussing “replica” clothes and shoes, r/fashionreps or something? You might be able to find an international source there.
Many years ago I went to Hong Kong and Shenzhen and picked up a number of “replica” luxury watches for myself. They had them by grades and you could choose to spend more for higher grade replicas. I think I was paying $100-$150 for replicas of $10000+ watches which most people wouldn’t be able to tell they were fakes. I still remember they would bring out catalogues from watch manufacturers and tell you what they have available and what grade they were. The whole replica industry is pretty interesting.
As I said I was surprised that the counterfeit was actually better than the original in many ways. It kind of sucks that we don’t have access to these goods readily in NZ. Why should I go buy a blank ugly pair of sweatpants from Kmart when I can buy a much. better looking one of same or similar quality one from another vendor?
Unfortunately it’s probably too easy to get shut down due to IP laws here. Anyone selling the stuff that gets even remotely popular would attract the attention of the law.
Counterfeit clothes can be very hit and miss though. I lived in Southeast Asia for awhile where you could get it easily and there is a lot of it that is crap quality.
Personally I don’t buy many clothes any more, but the little that I do buy I’m happy to spend more on quality so it lasts longer.
Just to follow up with you.
So far the counterfeit pants have been holding up great. My genuine addidas pants have all suffered from pilling but this one hasn’t yet. Let’s see what happens in another month.
That’s great. I agree a lot of adidas/Nike gear is pretty lacking in durability yet they still charge a premium for them