20190116 偉大的中國假貨

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偉大的中國假貨
Luke Leitch為了買到假冒的人皮包而被綁手綁腳

2019 年 1 月 16 日
作者：Luke Leitch

我最近第一次來到上海。上海有很多值得一看的地方：外灘、迷人的法國區、浦東的摩天大樓。但我真正的首要任務是去看看那些假冒的名牌商品。我聽說有些產品真假難辨，而我一直在尋找我的行李箱碾壓品牌 Rimowa 出品的鋁質手提箱，價格比通常的 800 英鎊（1,020 美元）還要低。
我和三個朋友跳上計程車，前往科技博物館，有人告訴我那是在上海找假貨的最佳地點。她騙了我嗎？熙熙攘攘的學生簇擁著我們，但我沒看到任何假貨。我們正要離開，一位戴著 Gucci 帽的女士走過來，說要帶我們去贗品市場。這裏原來是博物館旁邊一個巨大的地下商場。在這個龐大的地下商場裡，一些小店鋪明目張膽地售賣假貨。

我看中了 Sean Wotherspoon 最近推出的 Nike Air Max 1 和 Air Max 97 混搭鞋款，鞋身有北齋風格的波浪刺繡和雙重 Swoosh。這款令人垂涎三尺、轉售價值超過 1,000 美元的球鞋就在眼前！當然，除了它不是之外。你可以看到多層多色燈芯絨之間的膠水，而且鞋頭像木屐一樣鈍。巴黎品牌 Goyard 的手提包和錢包上有令人信服的字母圖案，但縫線亂七八糟，襯裡也是尼龍而非棉質。其他印有著名標誌的商品都應該寫上 「shoddy」。我發現的第一個 Rimowa 手提包的鉸鏈不對，是塑料而不是鋁，而且圖案也很奇怪。

當我們再往前走時，複製品的情況就有所改善。Salvatore Ferragamo "手袋和皮帶上的扣子看起來很有質感。聲稱是 Moncler 製造的夾克上有類似真的 Moncler 產品上的登記標籤、全息圖和 QR 代碼，供買家檢查真偽。

我買了一件假的 Off-White T 恤給我兒子。對於一件價值 300 美元的商品來說，棉質是最基本的；絲網印刷的標誌複製得很好，但在其 「意大利製造 」標籤（沒有可能！）裡面卻是該品牌一貫的藝術畫廊風格的標題。儘管如此，50 元（7 美元）的價格對於 12 歲的孩子來說還是可以接受的。

有些人把購買名牌商品視為 「白日搶劫」：生產成本和銷售價格之間的差額被嚴重誇大。這類商品的價值是心理上的。相比之下，上海的假冒商品可以以物易物，以一個合理的價格出售。但它們有自己未公開的邊際利潤：你不知道是誰在什麼情況下製造了這些產品，不知道誰從銷售中獲利，也不知道漠視知識產權的廣泛後果。

當我偶然發現一個 Rimowa 的贗品時，我的良知就不再悸動了，雖然它並非完美無瑕，但卻有一個極佳的凹陷標誌和稜紋鋁質包身；序列細節看起來完美無缺；襯墊內裡也非常華麗。當賣家把價格降到 700 元（約為原價的 10%）時，我已準備購買。

就在這個時候，我聽到另一家包店在叫我的名字。我的三個朋友被嚇壞了。他們被帶進了一個密室，裡面有 「特殊 」的香奈兒手袋，顯然有正確的全息圖、防偽標籤和五金件，看起來根本不是假貨。我的朋友說她要從提款機中取出 2,000 元，這時一個穿著（假的）Gucci 外套、相貌兇惡的傢伙突然從另一個房間走了出來，好像要堵住出口，並要求立即刷卡付款。

他可能是對可能損失的銷售感到憤怒。但最近賣假貨也變得越來越危險：中國政府正在打擊造假者，一些奢侈品公司利用調查員來追捕他們。也許是因為我們本身就是假冒的遊客，所以他們擔心我們會找出仿冒品和贓物。

無論原因為何，氣氛都變差了。買到假貨似乎也不是那麼無害。我們離開了。回到倫敦後，我把 T 恤塞給兒子。他稍稍從筆記型電腦上抬起頭： 「哦，爸爸，那明顯是假的 - 你留著吧。
插圖：Bill Brown


The great Chinese fake-off
On a trip to buy a counterfeit manbag, Luke Leitch gets handbagged

Jan 16th 2019

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By Luke Leitch

Irecently visited Shanghai for the first time. There was plenty to see: the Bund, the glamorous French quarter, the skyscrapers of Pudong. But my true priority was to check out the fake designer goods. I had heard that it’s impossible to distinguish some products from the real thing – and I was on the lookout for an aluminium carry-on case by my luggage crush-brand Rimowa at something lower than the usual £800 ($1,020) price tag.

Three friends and I jumped into a taxi to the Science and Technology Museum, which I’d been told was the best place to find fakes in Shanghai. Had she duped me? Hordes of immaculate schoolchildren were trooping in, but I could see no fake merchandise. We were about to leave when a woman in a Gucci cap approached, offering to take us to the fakes market. This turned out to be a huge underground mall alongside the museum. In the sprawling warren, small stores offered counterfeit goods in plain sight.


I spotted Sean Wotherspoon’s recent mash-up of the Nike Air Max 1 and Air Max 97, complete with Hokusai-style wave embroidery and double Swoosh. This highly coveted sneaker, with a resale value of over $1,000, was here IRL! Except, of course, it wasn’t. You could see the glue between the layers of multi-colour corduroy and the toe was clog-like and blunt. Totes and purses from Parisian brand Goyard had a convincing monogram but wonky stitching and a nylon, not cotton, lining. Other items with famous logos should all have read “shoddy”. The first Rimowa I spotted had the wrong hinges, was plastic not aluminium, and had a strange pattern.

The copies improved as we ventured further. The buckles on the “Salvatore Ferragamo” handbags and belts looked convincingly substantial. Jackets purporting to be by Moncler carried registration tags, holograms and QR codes similar to those on real Moncler products, for buyers to check authenticity.

I bought a fake Off-White T-shirt for my son. The cotton was basic for an item that should cost $300; the screen-printed logo was well reproduced but inside its “Made in Italy” label (no chance!) was a poor semblance of the brand’s usual art-gallery style caption. Still, for 50 yuan ($7) I thought it’d do for a 12-year-old.

Some people see buying designer goods as daylight robbery: the margin between production costs and sale price is grossly inflated. The value of such items is psychological. By contrast, the counterfeit wares in Shanghai could be bartered down to a reasonable price. But they had their own undeclared margins: you had no idea who made them or in what circumstances, who profited from the sale or the wider consequences of disregarding intellectual property.


The stirrings of my conscience ceased when I happened on a Rimowa rip-off that, though not flawless, had a superb indented logo and ridged aluminium body; the serial details looked perfect; and the padded interior gorgeous. By the time its seller went down to 700 yuan – around 10% of the original – I was poised to buy.

Just then I heard my name being called from another bag shop. My three friends were spooked. They’d been ushered into a back room and offered “special” Chanel bags, which apparently came complete with the correct holograms, security tags and hardware – they didn’t seem to be fakes at all. My friend said that she’d get the 2,000 yuan out of a cash machine when a tough-looking fellow in a (fake) Gucci jacket suddenly emerged from another room, made as if to block the exit, and demanded immediate payment by card.

He may have been angry at a possible lost sale. But selling fakes has also become more perilous recently: the Chinese government is cracking down on counterfeiters and some luxury firms use investigators to hunt them down. Perhaps the heavy was worried that we were ourselves fake tourists, sniffing out copies and stolen goods.

Whatever the reason, the vibe soured. Buying fakes didn’t seem so harmless after all. We left. Back in London, I slipped my son his T-shirt. He briefly looked up from his laptop: “Oh dad, that’s blatantly a fake – you keep it.”■

illustration Bill Brown