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Finding Quality Genuine Official Jerseys, Shirts and Sportswear at an Affordable Price

Today's online Sports Retail market is peppered with pitfalls and misleading information.

When you make an online purchase you want to be assured that the product you receive is of high genuine quality, yet so many online retailers purport to be selling genuine merchandise when in fact they aren't.

The Far East plays host to thousand upon thousand of factories set up with the ability to counterfeit almost anything. All they need is a single genuine example and before you can say ‘fake' they have dissected their specimen and are manufacturing copies at an alarming rate.

This has of course be a thriving market since well before the Internet became a major player in retail, but e commerce has made this multi billion industry even bigger, and has made the sale of such items even easier.

Counterfeit items in the 21st century are now so sophisticated that even an expert will require time and close examination to uncover their dark secrets.

The Sports Retail market has long been a target for counterfeiters. Premier items such as expensive Brand Name Trainers or sneakers by major global names such as Nike, Reebok or Adidas have long been a target, as have football / soccer jerseys and shirts, and American Major League Sports Jerseys. In recent times the NFL or National Football League has seen an epidemic of counterfeiting. These fakes are very plausible and for the novice jersey buyer they may never even realize that they have in fact purchased a copy.

The increasing popularity of Ebay as the marketplace of choice for many consumers to purchase such items has also fuelled the counterfeit market. Genuine sellers of original products on Ebay are bombarded by emails from Far East companies offering them copies of the very same genuine products they are selling at a fraction of the cost price. Purchase is made all the more simple with a few emails and a payment with paypal. The next thing you know the items are arriving boxed and in crisp shiny packets ready to sell, it's just all so easy.

Given the power and size of these huge global brands like Puma, or Nike, you would think a heavyweight lawyer with a sack of cash and intent to stamp the counterfeit industry would find a successful resolution within a few short weeks. But this is not the United States or Europe we are dealing with, and in the Far East a lack of regulation or lack or interest despite the major sportswear manufacturers ability to pinpoint these manufacturers to local authorities means that little is ever done about them. This ‘black' economy pulls in far to much good hard western cash to ever be seriously challenged by authorities in countries where rumours of corruption and bribery are rife.

The manufacturers and their lawyer's attempts at halting the retailers of such products are also less than successful. With online trading markets such as Ebay or Amazon meaning that no sooner have you closed one outlet, another 3-4 pop up. Of course selling counterfeit goods to unsuspecting buyers is not good for any retailers reputation, but these copies are often sold for a fast buck by people who are only interested in ‘maxing' out profits on fakes items and then moving on to the next shadowy deal.

 

So how can you buy online safely, securely and reliably and be sure that what you are getting is genuine?

Of course the major online players in this field would never sell a fake. Companies Like Sports Direct or Kitbag in the UK are reputable companies that would never risk their market share in dabbling with such copies, but as market leaders these companies can demand a price for goods that makes the lure of cheap counterfeit items so tempting in the first place.

When a major retailer is selling an NFL Reebok authentic Jersey at over £90, yet on Ebay a jersey purporting to be exactly the same can be purchased at a third of that price, you can see where the demand is generated.

So where can a Sportswear fan or collector find the ‘real deal' but without having to pay the top dollar prices of the major retailers?

 

The good news for collectors and wearers of genuine official sportswear is that there is a new breed of online retailer that can harness both the official product with an affordable price.

Whilst some on Ebay have been misusing the sites capabilities to hoodwink their customers with cheap copies other have been using the online marketplace to build a reputation and niche that has their customers returning time and time again for genuine product at a price much lower than the online market leaders.

 

One such company is Allsports R Us.

Having traded through online marketplaces such as Ebay for several years, Allsports R Us are now focusing their trading on their new online web store, allsportsrus.com

We caught up with company Director Simon Mack to ask him just how he can provide Official goods at such a competitive price and still turn a profit.

"That's a good question," commented Simon. "At Allsports R Us we started out by selling Official used retro American Sportswear. We had contacts in both the USA and Canada that would ship us box loads of NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB used jerseys. The price was low and the quality was on the whole good and there was a good demand, but as time passed we soon realized if we could replicate the cost but with brand new stock this would be the key to our growth." He added "Don't get me wrong, to this day we still get at least 5 emails a days from the Far East offering us cheap copies, we forward them on to the relevant authorities. Distance selling is based on a level of trust between retailer and customer. If the buyer cannot rely on you to provide exactly what you advertise then you are dead in the water."

Allsports R Us has worked tirelessly with licensed wholesalers both in the UK and the USA to locate genuine product at the right price.

"We have built up a portfolio of suppliers that are licensed and trustworthy." Simon added "But the problem we face is being trusted in an online marketplace so full of frauds. The biggest culprit in cultivating this lack of trust is in my opinion Ebay, who don't seem to act quick enough to stamp out the counterfeit sellers. That is why we are looking to move away from selling in marketplaces like Ebay and have created our own online store allsportsrus.com. Buyers can visit our store in the confidence that anything they purchase is 100% Official and Genuine. Every single jersey, shirt, hat, Basketball, Football, Soccer, Baseball, Hockey, Cricket, Rugby and all the other wonderful items we sell are 100% genuine and only sourced from genuine licensed suppliers. And the relationships we have built up allow us to sell our products at a price that gives the customer the best of both Worlds."

 

Online retailers like Allsports R Us are certainly a breath of fresh air to the Sports retail market and we hope they can thrive in the highly competitive marketplace. With values based on trust and reliability of their product they should have little problem.

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About the Author

Working in the Sportwear industry for many years I use my knowledge and expertise of the field to discuss the challenges the sector faces.

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