NHL (playoff) reminder about counterfeit products

jessebelanger

Registered User
Feb 18, 2009
2,361
4
As opposed to the current crop of jerseys being made in CHINA as well? Yes it does have NA ties, because the retailers selling these items are in North america, and their profits help the economy here just as much as the Chinese made authentic jerseys being shipped here and sold.

The main reason counterfeiting is so rampant is because these large corporations move the manufacturing over to china to increase profit, and hope that the Chinese abide by some imaginary morales of profit margins so that the large corps can gouge the public. The Chinese know that the profit margins are inflated so high that they can make a similiar product ( not care about intellectual property rights ) and make profits off of it as well and undercut them. To me, thats how a market corrects itself, when a monopoly tries to control a market.

In making a deal with the devil ( figuratively speaking, i'm not saying chinese are evil ), they have opened themselves up to moulds and stamps being stolen or replicated and producing goods at a cheaper price. If they want to eliminate the conterfeits, then they're going to either have to offer a product that is superior in value either by raising the quality, or by lowering the price. They do not want to do either, so they are stuck with the consequences.

I do not believe any authentic NHL jerseys are made in China. Replica Reebok jerseys are made in Indonesia, authentic reebok jerseys are made in Canada.
 

Mayor Bee

Registered User
Dec 29, 2008
18,084
526
As opposed to the current crop of jerseys being made in CHINA as well? Yes it does have NA ties, because the retailers selling these items are in North america, and their profits help the economy here just as much as the Chinese made authentic jerseys being shipped here and sold.

The main reason counterfeiting is so rampant is because these large corporations move the manufacturing over to china to increase profit, and hope that the Chinese abide by some imaginary morales of profit margins so that the large corps can gouge the public. The Chinese know that the profit margins are inflated so high that they can make a similiar product ( not care about intellectual property rights ) and make profits off of it as well and undercut them. To me, thats how a market corrects itself, when a monopoly tries to control a market.

In making a deal with the devil ( figuratively speaking, i'm not saying chinese are evil ), they have opened themselves up to moulds and stamps being stolen or replicated and producing goods at a cheaper price. If they want to eliminate the conterfeits, then they're going to either have to offer a product that is superior in value either by raising the quality, or by lowering the price. They do not want to do either, so they are stuck with the consequences.

For one thing, Reebok Edge jerseys are made in Canada, not China. For another, the materials that go into it are made in Taiwan, not China.

Or it could be like what Nike sees; all of the materials in the Swift jersey are made in North America or Europe and actually created there as well, yet....somehow China has access to all of this?

Third, what you refer to isn't a "market correction" any more than building houses out of stolen materials is a market correction. It's not a market correction any more than stealing cars and selling them for less than a dealership does, or anything else along those lines. It's theft, plain and simple. The people who engage in these activities are criminals, and those who actively support them are criminals as well.
 

Dado

Guest
The Reebok NBA authentics are third-world made, no reason to expect the NHL variants are any different.
 

Mayor Bee

Registered User
Dec 29, 2008
18,084
526
Premiere replicas are Indonesia.

Indeed they are.

One thing that I haven't been able to yet figure out is the whole idea that anyone out there has a real grasp on what the "real value" of these are. For that matter, I also don't know where anyone has a clue of historical pricing.

I remember back in the 1990s, when Bauer had the IHL and AHL contracts...the pricing was crazy. For one thing, it was stratified, so some teams were cheaper than others. The San Diego Gulls were cheap, the Houston Aeros were expensive. The Baltimore Bandits and Carolina Monarchs were incredibly expensive (I think those were $95 for a replica and $250 for an authentic, and that was in 1996). The NHL was no different; the original alternates were in the $225 to $250 range for authentics and around $80-100 for replicas. Adjusted for inflation, those were more expensive than the Reebok ones are today.

The other thing is that the materials used in those days wasn't anywhere close to the quality of today. Airknit is junk, and to compound that, CCM had crest and shoulder patches that were so stiff that it actually affected range of motion (that includes the authentics, by the way). Bauer used a mesh for a couple of years that was no better than the original CCM nylon mesh of the 1980s, then upgraded to the Floknit at great cost (which was passed on to the retailers and consumers). CCM ultrafil was no better in 2004 than it was in the 1980s. And so on.
 

Tinalera

Registered User
Feb 3, 2007
6,522
50
The Known Universe
Indeed they are.

One thing that I haven't been able to yet figure out is the whole idea that anyone out there has a real grasp on what the "real value" of these are. For that matter, I also don't know where anyone has a clue of historical pricing.

I remember back in the 1990s, when Bauer had the IHL and AHL contracts...the pricing was crazy. For one thing, it was stratified, so some teams were cheaper than others. The San Diego Gulls were cheap, the Houston Aeros were expensive. The Baltimore Bandits and Carolina Monarchs were incredibly expensive (I think those were $95 for a replica and $250 for an authentic, and that was in 1996). The NHL was no different; the original alternates were in the $225 to $250 range for authentics and around $80-100 for replicas. Adjusted for inflation, those were more expensive than the Reebok ones are today.

The other thing is that the materials used in those days wasn't anywhere close to the quality of today. Airknit is junk, and to compound that, CCM had crest and shoulder patches that were so stiff that it actually affected range of motion (that includes the authentics, by the way). Bauer used a mesh for a couple of years that was no better than the original CCM nylon mesh of the 1980s, then upgraded to the Floknit at great cost (which was passed on to the retailers and consumers). CCM ultrafil was no better in 2004 than it was in the 1980s. And so on.

This and other comments are a fascinating study of jerseys and market. I agree it's hard with a jersey to come up with how much it costs to actually be "made" (I'm talking legitimate ones). I have a few jerseys, and now I'm tempted to go and see how "legit" they are lol (I bought all of them in sporting goods stores, ranging in price from 100-200 dollars.
 

Mayor Bee

Registered User
Dec 29, 2008
18,084
526
This and other comments are a fascinating study of jerseys and market. I agree it's hard with a jersey to come up with how much it costs to actually be "made" (I'm talking legitimate ones). I have a few jerseys, and now I'm tempted to go and see how "legit" they are lol (I bought all of them in sporting goods stores, ranging in price from 100-200 dollars.

There's a lot of layers to deal with any time that manufacturing comes into play. To give an example, my father-in-law is a pipefitter at Ford. The plant that he works at makes engines for one particular type of vehicle, which is one of several that Ford makes. It's a good sized crew that does nothing except one type of maintenance on the plant itself to keep it running (and get paid pretty well for it), but they directly manufacture nothing. There are other crews that do maintenance on other things like blast furnaces and stamping mechanisms and all that other fun stuff...multiply that by a large number of similar plants, and you're getting an idea of how many background expenses that there can be. Hell, he told me what the price was to get a used blast furnace from a plant that was closing, and just the transportation costs were astronomical.

Take a look at this video. Now consider all of the bills that have to be paid, how many people need to be paid, how many machines need to be maintained, and the licensing fees that go along with that. That's in addition to other background expenses....manufacture of the materials, importing, freight costs, and a lot of other things. Also consider that at the basic level, there's a commodity that goes with it. Polyester, which most jerseys are made from, is derived from petroleum. Take a look at oil prices in the last 10 years, and it's easy to see why the costs have gone up there as well.

 

PlagerBros*

Guest
As soon as I saw the title of this thread I knew Mayor Bee would be on his soapbox condemning all who buy fakes as the spawn of Satan.
 

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