ORIGINAL or COPY Shoes- How can SHOP-OWNERS check while buying

How to Check ORIGINAL or COPY Footwear ?

Hello Shop owners/ Readers, let’s discuss how to find out that the Footwear purchased in bulk for our shop is a original or copy (first copy, second copy, etc all are COPY and illegal).

There are so many big players in the market who sell branded Footwear. Some sell with brand bill and some without because of the reason, purchased from an authenticated platform then only they can provide the brand bill. So, always buy from the Brand bill providers. Anyone claiming that articles are originals but cant give brand bill -remember, its an alarm. Something is wrong if you don’t get brand bill. Even with brand bills, frauds may happen (explained in this article towards the end)

Also there are different types of footwear stock lots include Assorted stocks and Set wise stocks:

1. Assorted means all the articles will be in different designs and different sizes. Whereas set wise means there will be all sizes available in every design, sometimes even in a ratio like 1:2:2:1 for size 7 8 9 10.

2. Set wise have high chances that they can be first copies because, if someone is creating copies then they will always manufacture repeated articles. Genuine stocks cant be set wise easily. Originals will usually come in assortments. No brand will liquidate latest designs, setwise, in the market at low rates. If someone is giving you NIKE ADIDAS 2019 or 2020 articles set wise, beware!

Other factors on which we can decide that the product is genuine or not those are:

1. If the boxes of the shoes are proper and not even scratched with new dates, like 2019 or 2020. There are chances that they can be duplicate products. The brand always sells there unsold stock or old stock which can never look that much fresh. So check them twice and get the assurance of originality. These articles will be liquidated by brands if those are slow-moving or non-moving . So at least 2017-18 or older articles that they will liquidate.

2. Always check for the ‘Article No’ which is given inside the tag of the shoe. That will always need to be unique and try searching it on google search. Found out the original product after searching, then the article may be genuine (still not sure 100%). If not then there is a problem with originality of the product. Check that different shoes have different tags inside and with the unique article number. If different articles have same code, then they are duplicates for sure.

3. Brand Bill – It is mandatory for shopkeepers to have brand bill & sell only original brand footwear, no first copy, no local copy. Selling copies can land up up in Jail. Always ensure to take the BRAND bill and check all the articles are genuine or not. (You will find a Case study in the end of the Article on Brand Bill). GST bill with brand name not mentioned is useless. GST bill means tax going to govt, but the brand not mentioned can still land you in jail.

4. Also, check the condition of the shoe that will also define that the product is generic or not. For e.g., the brand name is different and logo is different, wrong brand spelling or brand logo, pasting of the product is visible outside, the quality check was not properly done. That also will let you know that the product is a duplicate or an original.

If you own a shop then there are two factors on which your sales is governed – those are increasing footfalls and supplying genuine products regularly  to satisfy the demands of the customers. So, if you only mistakenly get the duplicate products from supplier and start selling those to your customer then it will start decreasing you trust and footfall. They won’t be buying from you anymore.

For an example, check some pictures on this page and details Footwear Branded Stock lot Page Link. Here you can see that any set of 50 or 100 pcs, are all different and even the sizes are assorted. This along with things like brand bills, old season stock disclaimer tells us that stocks can be originals.

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CASE STUDY on HOW YOU GET FOOLED by getting  BRAND BILLS TOO – India has all jugads 🙂

In this case there is a Wholesaler who sells branded goods like Footwear, T-shirts, Denims, etc. He buys directly from brand, Lets suppose he buys 1000 quantity of Footwear now he is authorized to bill those 1000 pairs of footwear to shopkeepers. A shopkeeper(NAME: SHYAM) comes to wholesaler to buy 150 Pairs of footwear and shyam says I want the brand bill so, wholesaler agrees and gives him bill for 100 pairs. Do never get fooled by taking lesser Quantity bill because the remaining footwear he is giving to you are duplicates that is why the wholesaler is not giving actual bill so you can not claim the purchase afterwards. ALWAYS TAKE THE ACTUAL QUANTITY & ACTUAL PRICE BRAND BILL.

In another scenario, this wholesaler sold his original 1000 pairs along with a mixing with another 1000 pairs of copies. Now since only 10 shops asked for bill, he could give 10 shops X 100 pcs bills while in these bills itself he has sold copies also to make more money.

For some wholesalers who are old in the business, they may have a brand bill of 1000 articles he traded last year and might still be selling copies by using reference of that old bill. So he would have sold 20000 pcs giving a brand bill, still using the reference of original bill. In case of any police raids on any of his shopkeeper clients, he would be planning to show that bill.But along with police in such brand raids for duplicates, brand executives also join and identify copies and then you are behind the bars as a wholesaler sold you copies on a fake brand bill. BEWARE, BUY ONLY FROM RELIABLE SOURCES AND WITH PROPER BRAND BILLS