China's fake-NIKE town

[Paul E Ester]

In Putian, a small costal town in the southern Fujian Province, manufacturing fake Nike shoes is a huge industry that employs nearly 10 percent of the local population. However, unlike many other Chinese towns with the all-too-common counterfeiting factories, Putian stood out in its ability to produce high-quality counterfeits capable of fooling even professional quality control personnel. Putian's factories have gotten so good at producing shoes that could pass for Nike's, that people have taken to honoring them with a paradoxical title: "legitimate knock-offs".

Some retailers are buying counterfeits and mixing it in with legitimate product.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

1. Nike could either sue the Chinsese to shut it down or

ask the factory to make shoes for it.

I also guess that I would ask if this company is really hurting Nike's bottom line?


I don't like to pay for a fucking logo anyway on my shoes so I don't buy the swoosh.

[Plucketeer]

2. If I ASK for Chinese footwear

Can I be certain that's what I'm getting? Obviously, the "MADE IN CHINA" tag might be a lie.

[JDPriestly]

3. The narrator does not sound like a native English-speaker.

The intonation is way off to my ears. (I could be wrong, but I doubt it.)

A knock-off English-speaker telling us about knock-off shoes. How terribly annoying.

It's very sad because China used to make beautiful things like dishware and household items with beautifully painted designs.

I think that these Chinese factories will be replaced by 3-D copy machines before long.

We'll be buying the 3-D machines and the materials and just make our own stuff -- maybe even in our homes or neighborhoods.

Walking home tonight, I was thinking how wonderful it would be if I could have a shoe that was truly made to fit my foot rather than one made to fit the feet of people with feet similar to but not really like mine.

[02potato]

4. Time to go to war. "Hey China, can we borrow ten bucks to get started?"

[dembotoz]

5. being older than some of you, i remember how cars and electronics from japan used to be derided

for pretty much the same stuff

stories about how some towns in japan changed their names to that of famous companies to that they could export the copy with the fake name more easily

don't know if that was urban legend but is went around for a long time.

we had better keep our eyes on the old 8 ball if we don't want that to happen again

[fasttense]

6. So this town can make shoes as good as starving 6 year olds.

Because we all know Nike is NOT spending any more money on labor than it absolutely has to. Most of the cost for real Nike shoes goes into advertising.