The rapidly rising number of Chinese consumers who want to look stylish but can’t afford to buy genuine brands is fuelling a boom in retailers selling bogus products, particularly denim.

One such retailer is 2046 Boy, which recently opened on the outskirts of Shanghai.  

“Most Chinese would love to pay a low price and get jeans with style,” said Wang Xiao Dong, its owner. “Everybody has the right to look stylish. A lot of people who can’t afford real brands come to stores like this. It depends on people with different tastes.”

Consumers will pay 200 yuan, or US$30 for a pair of denim jeans in a small store in Shanghai because of the clothing’s style and shape. They say they prefer style to label, with the goods looking just like the high end name label brands spied on the catwalks… 

While retailers like 2046 Boy are profiting from the demand from style and status-seekers, it hurts the businesses of retailers who sell authentic denims like O’blu, a store in Xintiandi shopping complex that sells high-end products.

A store spokesperson said sales  are bad “and getting worse”.

“Fake jeans are eating away at the market. There are a lot of jeans available online that are fake, which is one of the reasons why customers don’t come here, and people don’t know much about brands.”

Apparel industry sources say the name of the jeans’ label is not so important as it once was: “Only the rich people, they probably go to Louis Vuitton or Dolce Gabbana, but they do not really understand what the difference is between jeans brands and luxury brand jeans,” said one who works for a Beijing based company importing designer brands from overseas.

She said foreign high-end denim brands, accustomed to selling products in upscale department stores, find it difficult finding places to sell their products in China.

GB