Aside from the soaring popularity of Nike and other sneaker brands, counterfeit sneakers have been on the rise in recent years. In fact, it’s thought that Nike is losing around 10% of its revenue to fake sneakers.
Despite the growing number of counterfeit Air Jordan 1s in the market, there are still ways to tell a fake from an authentic one. The most common identifiers are the box, fonts and stitching pattern.
Cost
Buying counterfeit sneakers can be a huge expense. According to research from WSJ, sales of knockoff shoes reached $520 billion last year, making them the second-most counterfeited product category behind apparel/accessories.
Typically, sneaker resellers on Instagram offer too-good-to-be-true prices on limited sneakers and claim to have lots in stock. This is an indicator that you should be wary of them and check their reputation before committing to a transaction.
These sneakers are made by unauthorized manufacturers in China and are almost always fakes. They don’t match up to Nike or Adidas’s quality standards and can be marked with shoddy stitching, off-kilter swooshes and even crackly vinyl.
They can cost as much as $150, and some of them are coveted on the secondary market, where they are fetching a 3x premium over retail price. It’s no wonder that Nike filed a lawsuit against Detroit-based StockX, an online marketplace clothing reseller, for allegedly selling counterfeit Nike-branded sneakers at heavy discounts to unsuspecting buyers.
Appearance
Buying sneakers can be an expensive hobby. That’s why it is important to take care of your shoes and protect yourself from scams.
The sneaker community has its own ways of identifying fake AJ. However, as the market gets more and more crowded, counterfeit producers are getting better at imitating the appearance of legitimate pairs.
To identify counterfeits, sneakerheads should look for details like the materials, odor, color, and texture of the shoe. Some of these details are hard to replicate, but they can tell you a lot about the quality of a pair.
Moreover, some counterfeit sneakers are heavier than originals, which can also be an indication. This is especially true of Nikes, which are known for their lightness.
Reputation
In business, reputation is a crucial factor for firms. Executives know that a strong positive reputation attracts better employees, makes them more loyal customers and increases their market value. They also know that a firm’s reputation can help them lower financial risk and control costs.
Reputation is a ubiquitous and spontaneous social mechanism that affects phenomena of different scales, from individual behavior to global entities. Its influence is studied in a variety of disciplines, including management, psychology, sociology and the sciences of technology.
In addition, a recent study found that a company’s reputation can influence its financial performance. The higher a firm’s reputation, the less likely they are to default on loans and to face creditor or supplier problems. It is important to note that a positive reputation can also lead to higher earnings, which in turn, boosts the value of a firm. This is because shareholders and investors believe in a firm’s ability to deliver on their expectations for future performance.
