I've Been Bootlegged!

It appears that I am the latest sneaker artist to have his designs bootlegged.

Not really sure how to feel about it...on one hand it sucks when I think about the time and passion that I put into each design only to have some company overseas that produces low quality knockoffs reproduce my work without my permission and sell it for a ridiculously low price, and of course I see no profit from it. Not to mention that their version is put on a poor quality sneaker that probably won't last you 6-12 months before it starts to fall apart on you.

On the other hand I once heard a well known custom artist (can't remember who) say something to the effect of 'you know you've made it when your stuff gets bootlegged'...so I guess I know that someone's paying attention to what i'm doing.

I know i'm definitely not the 1st customizer to get bootlegged (I've seen artists like Meth, SBTG, Sekure D, etc. fall victim to bootlegging from some company in China that produces bad quality Nikes.

In this case the shoe that was bootlegged was the Letters Dunk High (don't know if I should mention the sites..don't wanna give them promotion). Below is a picture of the counterfeiter's "rendition" followed by the original done by myself:



























(note: None of the pics were touched up..other than the obvious "real" & "fake" tags)

Just look how cheesy the fake one looks as opposed to the cleaner authentic version...they even messed up the colors in certain areas. What's even crazier is that the website even had a description of the shoe that they copied & pasted almost line for line from another website that did a feature on the shoe. Also, authentic custom shoes do not sell for under $100, which would defeat the purpose of it being a custom in the first place.

I urge people DO NOT SUPPORT FAKES!! Bootleg shoes may be cheaper, but the quality is much lower and will not last as long as an authentic shoe that is purchased from an official retailer (not to mention how i've heard horror stories of people who ordered fakes from sites that took their money & never sent them the shoes). If you see any of my designs for sale on any website other than ecentrik.net (unless it's confirmed as official by me on my site or blog), it's a fake!

Remember, you get what you pay for.

Comments

  1. hey thanks for the heads up, but im a bit too late. i bought this shoe and its shipped, just havnt receive it yet. its from shoeslist.com (i was fooled by their FAQ) can you please review this shoe and see if its real? Please! thanks in advance.

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  2. I know it's definitely not real as I have never done any business whatsoever with the site and hadn't even heard of them until it was pointed out to me that they copied my shoe.

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  3. im so sorry! i forgot to post the link. http://www.shoeslist.com/nike-air-force-1-low-le-anthracite-silver-black-p-22.html (thats the shoe i bought from them...do you think its real? and any suggestion what i can do if its not? please help, its my first time buying online.)

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  4. The shoe looks legit, but then again there have been instances of bootleg websites using pictures from legit websites and passing them off as their own. While the company may still send you the sneakers in the mail, they might not be 100% authentic (in other words they might be "knock-offs").

    I came across this on the web a couple months back. It's a list of legit sneaker websites (I'm not sure how up to date it is though but I found some good sites from there):

    http://solepedia.com/Legit_Websites

    As far as what to do if the shoes aren't authentic, the only thing I can think of is to check the site's return policy. They might give refunds if returned within a certain time frame. Not 100% sure since every site's different.

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  5. OMG thank you soo much! i never thought they would use different picture as their own. well im still waiting, when i receive it, ill continue from there. thanks again for your help, your video have opened my eyes and ill never shop online anymore, except "pickyourshoe.com" (i heard they are the real deal) well thank you so much, i appreciated! oh and good luck with your shoe thing, hope you get them back for bootlegging you and taking your credits!

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