inside the knockoff-tennis-shoe factory

Nicholas johandleaug.
On the 19 th, an Italian shopkeeper ordered 3,000 pairs of white Nike Tiempo indoor football shoes from a Chinese sports shoe factory in Putian.
At the beginning of February, the owner wanted to buy timpos right away.
He Lin, the factory manager, was not authorized to produce Nike.
They will have no blueprints or instructions to follow.
But Lin doesn\'t mind.
He is used to working from scratch.
A week later, Lin asked me to use only his name, received a pair of authentic Tiempos, took them apart, studied their stitching and molding, and designed their own design, and supervised the production of 3,000 Nike clone products.
A month later, he shipped his shoes to Italy.
Lin recently confidently told me: \"He will order more when there is no remaining . \".
Lin spent most of his adult life making sneakers, although he only entered the fake industry about five years ago.
\"What we do depends on the order,\" Lin said . \".
\"But if someone wants Nike, we will make Nike for them.
Putian, a fake \"nest\"
Made as a Chinese-
Based on knowledge
Real estate lawyers say it is located in southeast China\'s Fujian province, just across the Taiwan Strait.
At the end of 1980, multinational companies from all walks of life began to outsource production to factories in Fujian, Guangdong and Zhejiang coastal provinces.
Industries tend to come together in specific cities and sub-regions.
It is sports shoes for Putian. By the mid-
The new brand factory 1990 s, which specializes in fake goods, began to copy authentic Nike, Adidas, Puma and Reebok shoes.
Counterfeiters play low-
Budget game for industrial spies, bribe employees of licensed factories to upgrade samples or copy blueprints.
A worker at the factory in Putian, Nike, said shoes were even thrown on the wall of the factory.
It is not uncommon for fake models to appear in stores before real models appear.
\"There is no way to go in any more,\" Lin told me, describing the safety measures to be strengthened at the licensed plant: guards, cameras and secondary exterior walls.
\"Now we just go to a shop that sells real shoes, buy a pair from the store, and copy a pair.
\"According to their expected market, the quality level of counterfeit products is different.
Shoes in Putian are mainly designed for export.
Footwear and intellectual propertyproperty-
Rights circle, Putian became high-
End fakes, shoes are so complicated that it is difficult to distinguish between true and false.
In the last fiscal year, the United StatesS.
The Customs and Border Protection Bureau seized counterfeit goods worth $0. 26 billion.
These items include fake nose wings, dvd, brake pads, computer parts and baby formula.
But in the past four years, counterfeit footwear has topped the list of seizure by the customs department;
It accounted for nearly 40% of total seizures in the previous fiscal year. (
Second in electronic products
The largest share of the year, about 12% of the total. )
Customs services are not broken down by brand, but demand for fake goods reflects demand for genuine goods, and Nike is widely regarded as the most fake brand.
A Nike employee estimates that there is a fake Nike item for every two genuine items.
But Peter Koehler, global consultant for Nike brands and litigation, told me, \"Frankly, it is impossible to count the number of fakes.
\"Advertising for factory closures
White, five stories high, with a brown metal gate in front.
It was a timely summer afternoon when I went.
Lin is 32 years old and has a moustache and a pleasant smirk.
He met me outside the factory and took me through the gate.
We climbed two aluminum stairs into a production workshop, echoing the grinding and hissing of the industrial labor force.
Dozens of workers filled the tongue with padding, brushed the glue onto the foot mold, and crossed the laces through almost finished sneakers.
The boxes of Nike and Adidas are stacked in one corner, and a pile of Asics shoes are stacked in the other corner.
On this special day, the factory is producing hundreds of runners.
Advertising help-
There is a wanted notice on the wall next to the entrance to the door, requiring all shifts to have sewing skills;
The work was not mentioned in the announcement as illegal.
Such things are often only assumed in Putian.
Manage a fake
The shoe factory puts Lin in the middle of a billion people.
A us dollar multinational enterprise that produces, distributes and sells counterfeit goods.
Of course, like coca farmers in Bolivia and opium growers in Afghanistan, Lin did not make a lot of money;
This is used to run a network of imports and distribution.
For example, last year\'s F. B. I.
Several Balkan people have been arrested in New York and New Jersey on suspicion of being involved in the \"import of large quantities of cocaine, heroin, cannabis, oxycoone, synthetic metabolic steroids \", more than millions of ecstasy and fake sneakers.
\"Dean Philip, director of the FBIB. I.
Asian/African criminal enterprises describe fake and shoddy products as \"smart means\" for criminals \".
High profits, low penalties.
An analyst at Interpol added: \"If they are caught by a container of fake sneakers, they will lose the goods and leave a mark on the customs records.
But if they are caught by three kilograms of Coke, they will last four to six years.
That\'s why you diversify.
On September 2007, New York City police seized 291,699 pairs of counterfeit Nike from two warehouses in Brooklyn. The early-
The morning raid was part of a simultaneous crackdown on counterfeit rings with tentacles in China, New York and at least six other US states.
Joint operations to hire undercover and bugging
Managed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, New York State Police, Niagara Falls police and New York police-
Exposure of a plan in which counterfeit Nike arrived in Brooklyn from China and then often shipped through UPS to stores in Buffalo, Rochester, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Milwaukee, Chicago, Newark, Portage, R. I.
And cities in India. Lev J.
Kubiak, the immigration agent involved in the case, said the total value of the streets seized (
If they are legally registered)
\"The result is just over $31 million.
It turns out that it is difficult to identify the source on sneakers.
An Immigration spokesman wrote in an email: \"The import documents are naturally untrue . \"
When I asked her where the shoes came from, I received an email.
\"But it may be near Putian or Putian.
\"After visiting the assembly line, Lin and I went up another staircase to the roof of the factory.
A breeze blew away the stream that winds behind the building. Half-
High construction
Located in a high-rise apartment in scaffolding and Green Grid, stand next to the towering crane.
Putian is a secondary capital city with a population of about 3 million, and its development speed is dazzling.
A bunch of unfinished apartment blocks can be seen from my hotel window and it seems to be on the higher floors every morning.
We sat in the roof office of the forest, surrounded by a small table with a board on it. size tea-
Manufacturing devices.
Lin began sweeping off the excess water on the coffee table with a brush, then making a pot of green tea, while describing the deal with Italian shopkeepers earlier this year.
After pouring the cup for me and my translator, Lin forgave himself and ran downstairs.
He brought back three samples, including the first of a batch, a fake Nike Tiempo, and sent it to Italian buyers to make sure it met his standards.
Scribbled on the side of the shoe with a navy blue pen with the date and the man\'s signature.
When I looked at my shoes, I noticed that the label on the inside of the tongue said \"made in Vietnam \".
It\'s all part of cheating, Lin said, adding that \"there are fake products to varying degrees . \".
Some are not of high quality and do not look like the original.
But some of them are of high quality and look the same as they really are.
The only way to tell the real and our difference is through the smell of glue.
He took the shoes back, buried his nose in the footbed and sucked in the air.
The National Intellectual Property Coordination Center is the anti-corruption headquarters in the United States.
Located between the concrete office building in Arlington, Va.
The center brings together delegates from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, the Food and Drug Administration, and the FBI. B. I.
The Patent and Trademark Office, the United States Post, the Defense Criminal Investigation Bureau, the Navy Criminal Investigation Bureau and other government agencies. J.
Scott Balman, deputy director of the center, is an immigration agent with short hair, dorsha, with a Tennessee accent.
Since joining customs in early 1980, Ballman has followed the evolution of law enforcement\'s response to intellectuals
Like anyone, breach of property. (
9/11 years later, Customs was divided into Customs and Border Protection dealing with interceptions and Immigration and Customs Enforcement dealing with investigations. )
He said he was the first undercover intellectual.
On 1985, he and a group of agents investigated in Miami and finally arrested a group that assembled fake watches, a property case for the customs department.
\"Since then, most of the production of this stuff has been driven out of the United States,\" he told me . \".
In 1998, the National Security Council studied
Property crimes and concluded that federal law
Lack of coordination in law enforcement.
Shortly thereafter, an executive order outlined the role of the National Intellectual Property focal point.
Two years later, Washington opened a temporary office, but after 9/11, the pursuit of counterfeit goods lost priority.
\"Resources and focus have changed overnight,\" said Ballman.
The agents were described in detail elsewhere and no longer considered me. P.
Combating terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.
The Obama administration has made intellectual property a focus.
\"Our greatest asset is innovation, the ingenuity and creativity of the American people . \"
\"But it\'s just a competitive advantage if our company knows that others can\'t just steal the idea and replicate it with cheaper inputs and labor.
Realize his wisdom
Obama has appointed an intellectual property strategy. property-
Law enforcement coordinators, immigration and customs law enforcement officers, while revitalizing property,
Center for Rights Coordination.
Can such efforts make a difference?
\"You won\'t arrest your way out,\" Bob Barchiesi, president of the international coalition against corruption, told me in a desperate tone last spring.
He insists there will be supply as long as there is demand.
He has just returned from a trip to China, where almost 80% of the goods seized by the Customs and Border Protection Bureau last fiscal year were of origin.
One day, Barchiesi observed that Chinese authorities had seized counterfeit jeans in a factory.
The plant, staff and all equipment are in place.
Barchiesi called the attack a \"propaganda show \".
\"Trying to make intelligence --
The property rights granted in China are not new.
Shortly after Gilbert Stewart completed his Athens portrait of George Washington at 1796, the portrait was today reproduced on the front of every $1 bill, A Philadelphia captain named John Hills set sail for southeast China.
Once in Guangzhou, in modern times-
In Guangdong province, sword ordered 100 unauthorized copies of the Washington portrait on glass. (
Somehow the two replicas have arrived in China and serve as a template. )
When Stewart learned about the sword\'s activities, he was furious, and on 1801 he sued the sword and won in Penn court.
However, damage may have been caused.
Even more than a century later, antique magazine commented, \"many portraits of George Washington painted on glass are sweeping across the country.
But China\'s counterfeiting is much more complicated than copying foreign goods in places like Putian.
Chinese sports shoes brands, for example, have also been counterfeited.
Domestic debate on ensuring intellectual property rights
Mark Cohen says property rights can be traced back at least to the 19 th century, when he moved to Beijing in 2004 to become an American citizen. S.
The first permanent intellectual member of the Patent and Trademark Office
Property representative of the US embassy(
Since then, he has become
President of American Chamber of Commerce intellectual Association
Property Committee)
Cohen told me that one of the initiatives of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement in the 1850 s was to \"draft a patent law to encourage innovation in China.
One morning, Cohen, who had a cappuccino at a high-end cafe in Beijing, criticized the Chinese government for its negligence, calling it too simple.
\"When people come to this environment, it is certain to assume that all of these counterfeit products mean that no one is enforcing them,\" he said . \".
\"But there are a lot of people executing!
I\'m enough. P. officials” —
He estimated that there were at least a few hundred thousand people.
\"Make Europe a small country.
\"Of course, numbers don\'t necessarily mean efficiency.
Joe Simon.
Baker McKenzie, a real estate lawyer in China, said: \"This is the job of the police, [
Chinese government
Not enough police for it. Ninety-
9% of law enforcement is bureaucratic.
He questioned whether the current implementation system was effective.
Lin, a counterfeiter from Putian, told me that local authorities searched his factory and even forced him to close the door during the day to let him run the factory at night.
But production is always going on.
Top intellectuals in Beijing
At the same time, property officials seem to disagree on what is fake goods.
Last year, the heads of the State Intellectual Property Office and the State Copyright Administration held a debate.
The dispute revolves around shanzhai, which literally means \"Shanzhai \";
In contemporary use, it means you should be proud of forgery.
There are fake iPhones and fake Porsche.
On February 2009, a reporter asked Tian Lipu, director of the State Intellectual Property Office, whether the cottage is worthy of respect.
\"I\'m an intellectual. property-
The rights worker, \"Tian replied briefly.
\"It is illegal to use other people\'s intellectual property rights without authorization.
He added that Chinese culture is not copying and copying others.
But a month later, Liu Binjie of the National Copyright Administration made a distinction between shanzhai and counterfeiting.
\"Shanzhai shows the cultural creativity of ordinary people,\" Liu said . \".
\"It fits the needs of the market and people like it.
We should guide shanzhai culture and standardize shanzhai culture.
Soon after, Shenzhen mayor, an industrial city close to Hong Kong, reportedly urged local businessmen to ignore the lofty debate about what is fake and what is not fake, \"Don\'t worry about cracking down on plagiarism,\" \"focus on doing business only \".
This contradictory political environment
Or training-
A seemingly confused company responded.
There is no doubt that, like the Athens portrait of Washington, today there is a pair of \"lots\" of fake sneakers that are \"banging\" on China, the United States, Italy and the rest of the world.
But none of the big footwear companies I \'ve come into contact with have ventured to estimate the scale of their counterfeiting problems.
It is better for them not to discuss the issue.
Peter Humphrey, founder of a risk consulting firm called \"ChinaWhys\" in Beijing, believes that there may be two reasons for this: the cautious attitude of \"annoying the Chinese authorities\" or \"dare not openly admit that they have a counterfeit problem.
\"Because when the news spread to the consumer market, everyone began to wonder if their shoes were real or fake,\" said Humphrey.
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How does fake products translate into the bottom line of legitimate companies?
Are every pair of fake tennis shoes from Nike and Adidas on sale?
Senior staff of a large sports company
A shoe company that did not want to be named reflects a simple industrial life fact: \"Will this affect our business? Probably not.
Is it frustrating? . . . Of course.
But I think we take it as a compliment.
This may also be a form of industrial training.
Lin told me his real ambition in Putian.
\"Making fake shoes is a transitional option,\" he said . \"
\"We are now developing our own brand.
In the long run, we want to build our own brand and build our reputation.
\"Lin\'s goal seems to be in line with China\'s de facto counterfeiting policy: to stop it legally, but also, hopefully, from a liberal perspective --
Industry-
Developing policies, the skills acquired will eventually lead to a strong legal business.
Counterfeit advertising in Putian-
The sports shoes industry is open.
As long as you enter \"Putian Nike\" in any internet search engine, hundreds of results will appear immediately, guiding you to Putian
Websites selling fake shoes. (
Fake in Putian
The sports shoes business has become so famous for Alibaba.
Online marketplace com provides a page that warns buyers to be careful when dealing with Putian suppliers. )
\"People who produce and sell products are no longer secrets,\" said Harry Lewin, an intellectual.
Property lawyer for McCarter & English.
\"The sellers of the past did not want to disclose who they were and it is a cake to find them now \".
The student Street in downtown Putian is a tree-lined street.
The shops on both sides of the driveway have nothing but fake tennis shoes.
It took me an afternoon to browse their items.
Like the products in the store, the quality of the store is also different.
A decoration worker like a city
Bare bricks and plumbing works, the sun shines through the facade of the window, down
Rhythmic electronic music played in the background
However, most stores seem to value businesses rather than aesthetics, with half-open storefronts made of metal blinds indicating that they are open.
I hid in a room and found a room with two walls covered with sneakers.
Wrapped in clear plastic: Jordan, the latest LeBron James model, Vibram fiveingers, and more.
Like a shoe cabinet for holiday goods
I pulled a pair of black Nike Frees from the shelf, rotated in my hands, folded the sole back and forth, pulled the stitches, and smelled the glue;
Every budding fan has their taste habits. (
I never smelled the \"bad\" glue. )
The shoes cost about $12 in the store on student Street and look no different from the one my wife bought for $85 in the US.
\"I don\'t know if I can tell one [fake]
\"Put on shoes right away,\" Ballman, deputy director of the National Intellectual Property Coordination Center, told me.
If a person who specializes in intelligenceproperty-
Most of his career is not sure he can tell the difference, how can I? (
The key, Ballman says, is that fake shoes have a \"heavy\" smell of glue. )
A Chinese salesman selling fake goods in Beijing told me: \"The shoes are original.
It\'s just that the brand is fake.
\"Do you want to buy or sell ? \"” a tall, 30-
When I checked Nike Frees, a woman with bangs asked me.
Her husband sat behind her, facing a big desktop.
Computer monitor
Their little daughter was wearing headphones and sitting in front of another computer playing video games.
The shop doubled as a wholesaler.
The woman later revealed that she and her husband run a small factory and shop.
They are looking for ways to bring sneakers to market and for sales agents who can sell shoes in the West.
\"We can get a discount if you order in bulk,\" she said . \".
I asked how long it would take to make 2,000 pairs.
\"Once you send us the model, it\'s about a month,\" she said . \".
Her husband said it and assured me that the shoes \"will be of the highest quality\" and added, \"We will use all the same material.
The best materials in Putian are available. ” (
However, Lin objected to this and said that the use of the same material would quickly push the price higher. )
\"How will I get 2,000 pairs of counterfeit goods in the US? ” I asked.
\"They won\'t come from Putian,\" he said . \"
Or at least this is not stated in the document.
\"We usually go through Hong Kong on our way to the United States. Don’t worry.
We do this all the time.
A week later, I flew to Hong Kong to meet a private detective named Ted Kavowras.
Kavowras is a research firm that employs 30 people in China and Hong Kong. (
He is also the Chinese and Hong Kong Ambassadors of the world detective Association. )
His expertise is to investigate counterfeit factories and distribution networks.
\"Until seven years ago, exporting from China was much more complicated because you didn\'t have the internet and you didn\'t get into the window of the world, and one night he was in a small Japanese restaurant near his office, eat Coke while eating grilled octopus skewers.
\"So most of the exports from China have to go through these countries --
Own shipping company.
Everything is very concentrated.
It\'s almost free now. for-all.
\"Kavowras is a pear. shaped 48-year-
An old man with a sticky skin and arrogant manners.
The night after we met for Japanese food, he appeared in a high-end steakhouse in black velvet Fila sportswear. (“What?
I\'m from Brooklyn, \"said pur, with a shrug. )
Kavowras grew up in New York City and joined the New York Police Department shortly after graduating from high school.
Three years later, he retired with a disability.
He ended up in \"a lot of laws --
Law enforcement officers, including security
But he found it worthless.
\"When you are not real, you are not real,\" he said . \".
Kavowras subsequently worked in the New York Times, but resigned five years later and moved to Asia.
In 1994, Pinkerton offered him a job in Guangzhou, China.
\"I have the right skills at the right time, at the right place,\" he said . \".
Five years later, Kavowras formed a panoramic view.
Advertising firm kavowras estimates that he works about 800 boxes a year, including everything from sneakers to watches to industrial mining pumps.
In 2002, New Balance hired him to wander around a factory run by its former franchise company in China, a Taiwanese businessman named Helas Zhang.
According to media reports, Zhang has more or less rogue behavior.
Although he had previously been signed by New Balance to make and distribute sneakers, the relationship became bad and New Balance canceled the contract.
But Chang continues to produce shoes with the New Balance mark without permission.
New Balance requires Kavowras to enter Chang\'s actions and report.
\"I used a fantastic method of investigation like a dream,\" Kavowras said when I asked him how a former street policeman in Brooklyn went undercover in China.
\"Drug dealers must trade drugs and counterfeiters must sell their goods.
When I showed up at a fake factory, I looked like a pretty girl on prom night.
I look like a big buyer who can export a lot of goods to him.
Zhang finally gave up the imitation of the New Balance shoes.
If the whole fake world has one thing in common, it is cheating.
Along the top of the Kavowras office filing cabinet, at the end of an upper corridor of a quiet building, is a row of putty heads designed by a Hollywood makeup artist, in this way, Kavowras and his staff can try camouflage: hat, sunglasses, beard and beard, false teeth.
\"I am the only working actor who is not waiting for the weekend,\" Kavowras joked . \". A half-
More than a dozen fax machines that Kavowras and his colleagues pretend to represent are programmed to display the country code and phone number of overseas companies.
Each employee has a tray full of various business cards to confirm their multiple identities.
\"The bigger the lies, the more they believe,\" said Kavowras, who also rented four shell companies in Hong Kong, where he achieved \"goals \".
Kavowras came across the office to a shelf full of wallets and backpacks with hidden cameras.
I asked him how the recession affected detective business.
\"Business must have slowed down last year,\" he said . \"
Corporate Brand-
The protection budget has been cut and the number of cases in Kavowras has decreased.
\"But we are working twice as much this year as before.
Any company avoided last year has come back to haunt them this year.
You can\'t escape these problems.
Some people say, \'Oh, it\'s just china. we don\'t have a real market in China.
But if it is in China, it will go out.
It will wash up on beaches around the world.
\"Where does he think the next step in the industry?
\"This is an ongoing battle,\" he said . \"
\"Like the drug war\'
Ongoing fighting? ” I asked.
\"That\'s different,\" he said . \"
Kavowras smiled in a false tooth.
\"I see that the battle remains the same, but the battlefield is changing.
More and more industrial jobs are being transferred to Vietnam.
The same is true of Cambodia, although there is still some confusion there.
It will become more international.
\"It is likely to mean that more agents, more detectives and more money are being used to pursue fake sneakers that no one can be sure.
Nicholas schder is a researcher at the New American Foundation and a regular contributor to the magazine.
He wrote about the kidnapping last time. for-Ransom business
A version of the article was printed on page MM38 of Sunday magazine on August 22, 2010, titled: Inside the counterfeit factory.
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