Online counterfeits from China is getting out of hand. According to a government study, $135 billion worth of counterfeit products were sold worldwide via the Internet. skiingbusiness.com brings us a look into the world of counterfeit ski goods and what it means to the ski industry.
skiingbusiness.com - Thinking about buying a high-quality down jacket? Think again. It could be filled with duckbills, goosefeet or any other scrap found on the floor.
At least that’s what Canada Goose discovered when testing a handful of shoddy counterfeit products bearing the company’s logo.
“It’s become a huge issue for us,” says Kevin Spreekmeester, Canada Goose’s vice president of global marketing.
And it’s not just Canada Goose being ripped off. According to a government study, $135 billion worth of counterfeit products were sold worldwide via the Internet. The study found that in 2007, the U.S. economy lost $58 billion due to product counterfeiting.
The bumpy ride may have just started.
“The outdoor industry is really just starting to see this change,” Spreekmeester says.
He and Ce-Ce Plunkett, Spyder Active Sports‘ human relations director, say counterfeiting has gotten worse since fall.
With the recession, people were looking for deals and turned to the Internet to find them. And many consumers didn’t know or didn’t care whether they bought legit products.
Whose cheating who? These big brand name companies are taking too much advantage of cheap labor so whose integrity is it really affecting? Very few companies these days have any idea how to actually manufacture anything they market and distribute! Which outwear companies make their own gear these days?
FD wear.
Guns too?
In addition to Cheaper Labor’s response, (imo) we need to examine the preceived losses of “$135 billion worth of counterfeit products” for what it is; likely a grossly inflated number based upon pretend sales at MSRP.
I’m not even talking about the ridic profit margins at ‘what the market will bear’ retail prices.
I’m saying that the number of buyers who are willing to pay full retail for that (insert name brand) jacket is pretty small. OEM and retailers know this, and have factored this into their sales strategies. Inventory is often sold at a expected “off season discount” which really means is that the majority percentage of retail buyers would never pay top dollar for an expensive item.
Additionally, those buyers that are buying ‘counterfeit’ goods are not the same buyers that might buy at full retail. It’s false for an OEM cite losses from a consumer that would not otherwise be buying their product if not for a ‘knock off’ price. The OEM isn’t really missing those sales.
IMO, that is the real issue. Competition / lost sales is only for similar products in similar price ranges. So supposed losses have to take into account that gucci was never going to sell a real bag to the middle school girl that got one online for a small fraction of the cost. It’s F-d up that they can claim that is as a full loss to counterfeit goods, but that’s what makes up that $135 billion.
As the write up states “With the recession, people were looking for deals and turned to the Internet to find them. And many consumers didn’t know or didn’t care whether they bought legit products.”
If people don’t care if it’s from an OEM, then it’s not a missed sale. Period.
The losses only come into play when counterfeit is sold AS real product. And to that end, yes there are some. BUT, those products sometimes (more often than anyone would like to admit) come from the same factory that makes the OEM that the only difference is that the name OEM isn’t getting the profits.
So if the item is actually really worth that price, then the consumer isn’t losing out (as so many oem like to claim) but really they are losing out on their mark ups or a product they MAYBE design, but don’t make. This is why they ALWAYS say the counterfeits aren’t internal, because they have to have a reason why YOU should buy from a retailer.
Woo…I just got all rant-y.
Bingo.
Ranty or not, you hit the nail on the head
thank god they can’t fake a good pair of wranglers…
Nowadays, there are so many products that has been introduced by manufacturers. But sad to say that some products are imitated and are sold cheaper than the original one…But is it a great to have a product that was genuinely from the original company and manufacturer.