Counterfeit Merchandise Is Ruining Clothing Culture

Counterfeited items are slowly becoming more prominent in society, and scamming people out of money. Highly counterfeited brands such as Chanel, Gucci, or Supreme are trying to flush out these fakes, but these replicas are only becoming more sophisticated and realistic.

There are many different tiers of fakes. Inauthentic items that look extremely real with similar materials, colours, stitching, and shape are known as "Grade A" fakes. For an untrained eye, it is hard to distinguish if these replicas are real or not, and can even be difficult for a professional to tell. These pieces have been nailed down to every stitch and material to scam people to buy the counterfeited product, placing a bad light on the brands and modern day clothing culture as a whole.

I have a personal experience of a counterfeited Supreme piece, which I purchased before I realised it was in fact a counterfeit. There is a black spot on the fake shirt that is two centimeters to the left from where it is on an authentic shirt.

The logo to the tag seemed to look real, which is usually where it is, easy to notice if it is fake. Even the slightest mistake can prove it is not an authentic item. This goes to show how hard it is to tell a quality fake from an authentic piece.

Every fake item will have something wrong that is noticeable once found, as most brands don't change the designs of their products over the years, so it easy to compare reals to fakes. People who make fakes choose brands that are:

1. Expensive,
2. Sought after, and
3. Easy to make.

All these correlate to brands like Supreme, Gucci, Chanel, or Louis Vuitton who have simple designs on their products that could be easily faked.

Scammers who sell the fakes claim that it is authentic and sell it for a lot cheaper than others on the market. People, unfortunately, believe the scam and spend the money. When people realise it isn't authentic this usually makes them more cautious about buying from the brand.

Replicas are becoming more common than the real versions, which is a serious problem for companies and consumers. Many people can barely afford to purchase these expensive items, but if they do it would be a big deal as these products cost over $1,000. If it turns out to be a replica, customers will likely never buy a product from that brand again as they don't wish to risk their money another time.

Recently, Samsung collaborated with Supreme for the Chinese release of the Samsung Galaxy A8. But there was a twist on the story, the "Supreme" company was, in fact, a fake but legal Supreme brand known as "Supreme Italia." Most replicas are actually illegal to manufacture and sell under copyright, but Supreme Italia trademarked the brand in Italy before the real Supreme brand could. Therefore, making it legal for Supreme Italia to sell fakes in Italy. Fortunately, it is easy to tell these are fakes and are ignored by most of the hypebeast community who purchase real Supreme product.

Clothing is a large part of life for most people who are a part of the hypebeast community. They all respect each other and their distinguished tastes in brands and styles. Though it is frowned upon to wear any type of fake. Scammers who sell fakes are the number one enemy of the hypebeast community, and people who wear these fakes are only being a part of the problem to support their fake businesses.

Another largely counterfeited part of the clothing industry is sneakers. Sneakers can often cost more than any other part of clothing. There are thousands of different versions of sneakers, also meaning there are millions of fake sneakers on the market. Sneakers are harder to replicate as there are more shapes, stitching, colours, and materials to perfect to make it look as real as possible. Even so, fakes are spread around the market unknowingly, and can even be harder to tell if it is authentic or not.

Counterfeited products are deeply affecting the clothing industry. It is causing many people to lose out on their money and deter them from buying any more from these expensive hypebeast or designer brands. It is having negative effects on the industry and places a bad look on people who are a part of any hypebeast clothing communities.