a large-scale smuggling bus to the feds
seeds 300,000 pairs of fake sneakers
that were headed into the tri-state this
month a group of Chinese smugglers were
arrested trying to bring 300,000
counterfeit Nike sneakers worth about 73
million dollars into New Jersey the
sneakers would then be taken to
locations in Brooklyn and Queens they
would sell for about a hundred and
ninety dollars a pair the forty two
containers of sneakers came from China
it hasn't been determined what city they
came from but in China everyone knows
that Putin is the city of fakes
what's up reddit so it's Chung and today
we are at seaport Factory one
counterfeit seller was willing to give
us a rare look at his operation I want
an only pair of c4
frozen yellow with consoles freshly made
at the factory today come on in what are
we looking at here well this is pretty
much our base of operation it's you can
call it an office you know it's
basically just an apartment unit you
need a large space to put your shoes and
organize them and sort them out before
you ship them away so what do we got
here I see we got we got some Balenciaga
is here yeah these are a balanced yoga
replica so lately
Jim wasn't always in the fake sneaker
business he used to be a med school
student in the UK while looking for a
pair of rare shoes
he found fake pairs online and realized
they were all coming from the same place
eventually he decided to get in on the
business himself because this is all
part of a black market he wanted to wear
a mask during the interview they called
the east of dot shoes so you know dead
shoes yeah - you know it looks like
something you follow we're definitely
years ago what do these run USD if
they're real
I believe they cost somewhere around 800
and what do you sell these for we sell
them normally at about 120 US dollars
she was like Balenciaga z-- Yeezys and
Jordans aren't just expensive they're
also usually extremely limited if you're
desperate you could buy
reseller but that's even more expensive
so for some people who just gotta have
the latest pair the best option is to
buy fakes reddit is a good source of
information for us to keep ourselves
updated on what the customers wants so
in 2016 while Chan was still in med
school he started his own business
selling fakes or what he calls high
quality replicas pretty soon he was
moving up to 120 pairs of shoes a day
which on average brought in over a
hundred thousand dollars a month
he hired a few employees to do the dirty
work but eventually he moved to Putin
himself to be closer to the action how
common is this kind of work in Putin
this is a very major industry it forms
pretty much the backbone of the local
city economy
as soon as the Sun sets the bikes come
out each pair is picked up by a courier
at the factory and then taken to a
middleman packs it up
and gets it ready for shipping right
there in the middle of the street at any
given moment the thousands of fake shoes
flooding intersections and back alleys
this isn't a coincidence Nike and Adidas
have both had a facial factories in
poutines since the 1980s which means
that it's pretty easy to find the same
materials and the same employees that
you find in a legit Factory some stores
operate in plain sight logos and all and
police look the other way usually now
these just came out very recently
really yeah they dropped about few weeks
ago what we have here is a replica of
the off-white converse how do you have a
replica of these made if these just came
out if you want to truly make a
something that is very close to the
original you need a pair of the original
shoes in order to cut it up and fully
deconstruct so people managed to procure
a sample of the original shoe before
they even sold so these are commonly
called backdoors and you've already got
replicas ready to go we have at least
three versions of this converse being
made so this is one of the better ones I
feel the converse is Chan is holding are
part of a limited edition off-white
collaboration made by superstar fashion
designer Virgil Ablow they're one of the
most sought-after sneakers today and on
the resale market they go for up to
$1,500 a pair from the customer
standpoint I'm sure they're very happy
to get a much cheaper version of the
shoes that they like from your
standpoint you're making money
they're waiting you're winning is
anybody losing here obviously the first
thing that comes to mind will be the
brand owners sure but I feel it actually
helps to increase the brand awareness of
a brand owner so it's actually a
win-win-win situation for everyone
involved really let's say you're sitting
across from burger lab low yeah you
think you'd say the same thing
Virgil I blow did actually mention
something about roughly gonna wants
before I love counterfeits it's the best
feedback it's better than like a great
review and vote like if it's working to
the point where someone else can profit
off that that means it's really working
but that was Virgil labs
last year and since then he seems to
have changed his mind this year his
company launched a multi-million dollar
lawsuit against companies who were
selling counterfeit merchandise these
are replicas of the human races so so
what's the matter with these a customer
probably complained that you know hey
for $60 I expect that the edges of the
embroidery must be clean and sharp and
I'm not happy of this I don't want this
but the biggest threat to Chan's
business isn't lawsuits anger designers
or even the threat of government raids
it's his own customers they expect
perfection in their fake shoes and if
they don't get it they're just as vocal
about their disappointment as they would
be for a normal business a single
negative review can cost Chan tens of
thousands of dollars in lost sales and
tanked his business for months
this room is mostly stock piles that
resulted from customers complaining that
hey I don't like the I don't like
certain features of these rows they're
not as good as I expected so this wall
is just full reject yeah to put it
plainly this is just a rejects room Wow
does it ever frustrate you when you get
you know some negative message from some
kid in high school who's freaking out
because the stitching is ever so
slightly crooked on their shoes yeah it
does when you're wearing a pair of shoes
no one in your right mind goes up close
to your feet and say hey you know that
looks 0.5 and just off mm-hmm I think
it's fake
a normal person doesn't do that all
these things don't actually matter in
real life are you a sneakerhead yourself
and personally I wouldn't call myself a
sneaker head really yeah you know what
swear is something that is supposed to
be functional as much as I think that
the shoes look ridiculous at times you
know is my core business so I'm in no
place to judge anyone
you
you