A huge fake sneaker factory was discovered in Naples

Fakes are one of the biggest problems in the fashion world and especially in the sneaker world. Just yesterday the Guardia di Finanza of Naples made a blitz in one of the largest "factories" of fake sneakers in the La Maddalena district of Naples. Suspicious of a series of suspicious movements outside what seemed like a normal store, with bulky parcels being moved in and out of the exercise, the military conducted a search that led to the discovery of a large amount of fake sneakers from brands such as Jordan, Gucci, Vans and Valentino, all produced in a real counterfeit atelier hidden behind the store. The shop owner, a 48-year-old Chinese man, also tried to bribe the authorities with €850 by inviting them to go and "get a coffee." Among shoes, logos and fake labels, the amount of merchandise seized amounts to as many as 140,000 items. The owner of the restaurant was arrested on the spot for incitement to corruption and, for his illegal activities, denounced for counterfeiting and receiving stolen goods.

The news comes just ten days after the discovery of another fake fashion factory in Scampia that contracted clothes and accessories from Gucci, Alexander McQueen and Chanel owned by a 31-year-old woman from Naples who was denounced. According to The Fashion Law, in 2019 alone the fake industry reached a global turnover of 500 billion dollars – a mechanism so capillary and scattered across the five continents that not even the same fashion brands are able to arrest it (LVMH spends, it is said, 17 million dollars a year in lawsuits concerning counterfeits), having to rely on local police forces. It is the same fashion that, by creating an unusable desire in the public, also creates the commercial demand that feeds the counterfeit market. Speaking on the subject a few years ago, Virgil Abloh said: 

«You can’t counterfeit something that’s not wanted, that’s the highest achievement that you can get: to make an idea and then someone want to make a copy of it».