$600 Billion
Estimated annual sales in counterfeit products worldwide
$512 Billion
Global sales lost to counterfeit goods
$250 Billion
Annual loss to American companies from intellectual property theft
$20 Billion
Estimated loss to American companies from counterfeit products
$1 Billion
Estimated annual loss in New York City tax revenues due to counterfeiting
750,000
Number of jobs lost due to intellectual property theft in the United States
10%
Estimated percentage of fakes among all goods produced worldwide every year
The Loubie loafer is made from the highest quality materials by hand & retails for just under $1000. The Aldo "Blye" sells for $80 and is more above-board about being an interpretation than an outright fake...unlike the $175 pair in the middle, which is being sold online with this equally retarded verbiage: "I Think You Find Right Site When You Enter Our Site.Our Christian Louboutin Rollerball Loafers is The Best Internet.When You See The Picture of Christian Louboutin Rollerball Loafers,You Will Find Our Christian Louboutin Rollerball Loafers is Beautiful."
*sigh*
While monetarily cheap to the person shopping, the stats at top from Fakes Are Never In Fashion show just how costly the knock-off industry really is. And not just in terms of profit. Have you ever wondered what knowingly wearing fakes says about you as a person? "These days there are more and more people buying counterfeit goods and proud of it," points out Dan Ariely, author of "The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie To Everyone, Especially Ourselves" in a recent interview on The High Low. "Imagine that I'm at home cheating on my taxes, I exaggerate some receipts and I listen to some illegally downloaded music. The moment I step outside, I no longer think about the illegal music, because it's the past and I'm doing something else. What’s unique about fashion is we keep carrying it everywhere we go. If I wear fake sunglasses at home, I also have them with me, and it keeps reminding me they’re not real and that I am not as honest as I want to think I am." Unlike, say, unloading music illegally while being "creative" with one's tax returns, the nature of how we consume fashion actually creates a different outcome emotionally.
In fact, Ariely points to one study which found that women wearing items they believed to be counterfeit began cheating more in general. Ariely surmises that this would occur because a particular brand's attributes, quality and story collectively signal your values to others. In short, any brand you wear is a shorthand but clear message about how you view yourself. "With music, the situation is very different because the object (the electronic file) is the same whether you pay for it or not. With products, the fake and the real items are not the same. If you get a fake product...you project that image and carry it with you, and you do all that while remembering it's fake. Because of that I think that fake products have a much longer and deeper affect on morality than in other areas."
Especially if the fake is something you wear or carry a lot. "If it's mostly in your closet and you use it once a year for a New Year’s party, it's probably not going to have much of an effect," he continues. "But the more you carry it with you, the more effect it’ll have."
So why do we collectively cheat to the tune of billion$?
Ariely believes that the root of the problem is our surpreme skill at rationalizing. "In fashion there are all kinds of ways to rationalize: 'oh the fashion world won't get my money anyway' or 'they're making so much money.' There are so many steps between the person and the action. And all of this rationalization makes it very easy to buy counterfeits, rationalize it to ourselves, and keep on thinking about ourselves as honest, wonderful individuals."
And honest, wonderful individual that you are, next time you're tempted by a fake, it might be worth asking yourself if your integrity is really worth stealing from the designer - an actual person whose work you admire enough to wanna wear - for a tawdry fling with a low-rent imposter/thief.
- Lesley Scott
(pix of Louboutins & Aldos; bottom image via source)
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