More than 9,000 pairs of fake Nike sneakers were found by U.S. customs officers during a standard inspection of incoming mail from China last Thursday, according to Customs and Border Protection.
Officers at CBP’s Port of New York/Newark found 9,024 pairs of the designer athletic shoes while looking through packages that had just come into the United States from Dongguan City, China.
The catch saved the retail corporation a potential loss of $1,695,600, the suggested retail value of the shoes that the counterfeit ones were modeled to look like.
“This significant seizure of counterfeit Nike sneakers illustrates Customs and Border Protection’s continued commitment to protecting the American consumer against the proliferation of substandard and potentially unsafe counterfeit consumer goods,” Troy Miller, director of CBP’s New York Field Office, said in a statement.
Nike did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
[Previous coverage: ICE seizes $43M of counterfeit designer goods imported to Laredo, Texas, from China]
CBP officers working at the port said they realized the shoes were not authentic after sending digital pictures of them to experts at the homeland security agency’s Apparel and Footwear Textiles Center for Excellence and Expertise. The trademark team verified it was a copycat shipment.
The shoes were sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations arm, which handles international smuggling investigations.
CBP said counterfeit merchandise sales often supports organizations involved in “nefarious and illicit businesses.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers stationed at the port enforce 500 trade laws and regulations on behalf of 49 agencies.
In fiscal 2017, CBP officers found $3.3 million worth of items daily that violated intellectual property rights.
Editor’s Note: The author’s sister is employed by Nike headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., but did not contribute to this article.
