Why do people buy replicas?

You didn't even read the posts you quoted you idiot

you have to understand that yeezys aren't some luxury sneaker they retail for about 200 usd. its the fact that adidas chokes the market by making it a limited release and cause it's a kanye collab. he's the reason why ultra boosts are so popular and hard to get now. he wore classic gazelle adv in a paparazzi picture and the shoe sold out worldwide within hours.

yeezys retail for 200 but fuck boy hypebeasts resell the damn shoes for almost 4x the original price. it takes away from people who might actually like the shoe and want to wear it l cause people are more interest3d in buying the product to flip it for a profit.

that's why people turn to fakes. most high end replicas are pretty close to the real thing so it ends up being a good alternative. at the end of the day they're just shoes, they're all made in China , and the average person doesn't give a fuck what you have on your feet.

This is what every broke nigga who wears fake shit sounds like.

Most of my shit is made in italy and portugal. Enjoy your gildan tee and itchy hanes boxers while i slip into some eqyptian cotton

Fakes are for posers who contribute abdolutely nothing to the culture they are supposedly buying into. It's disrespectful, tasteless, and destructive.

Arabs and Chinese don't give a shit when they rock fake shit. They're wearing it everywhere, especially malls and uni campuses. I image they make up a large percentage of the market's replica purchases.

Furthermore I think there's a difference in cultures or something. Or just a perception of fashion. Maybe they just see fashion as a means to an end. To establish yourself as upper class or whatever, and fakes are the most efficient way to go about achieving that associating between your clothing and yourself.

I'm not defending fakes, I never bought anything fake(btw my clothes are far more expensive than wallmart).
But those fuckboi brands are making the cheapest/crappiest clothes and charge 10 times more than what it should cost than what it should.
You can say that tricky ricky and guys like him are expensive, but at least his clothes are made in italy.So you pay their name, but also you pay for quality.
Paying hundrands for gildan shit or champions? Fuck em .

You wear your clothes to show your wealth and not cause you like them?

>Fakes are for posers who contribute abdolutely nothing to the culture they are supposedly buying into. It's disrespectful, tasteless, and destructive.
So?

They wouldn't buy replicas if it wasn't for the unnecessary hype around certain items like the yeezys you posted.

Some people might like the look but not have the money to buy the whole outfit (see Rick Owens reps).

Resellers fucked up everything. Mf just buy and keep in their closet until some kid comes and buys it for rape. I bet like 70% of hyped items are literally sitting in dead stock conditions because people buy them thinking they will make a huge profit. I hate these wannabe entrepreneur teens who literally muddy up the market because they want to be like the people at complex.

aren't you a poser for posing as someone who has such a strong position on posers? you fucking poser. You're a hypocrite.

You're right that alot of people by clothes/shoes as an investment because they can triple quadriple etc... their investment.
But is not their fault that the price goes up, the problem is that brands are creating a fake rarity/ hype around their clothes.
A thing is archive pieces being expensive, because is possible that at the time that they came out, no one cared about it and now if someone famous starts wearing it or that piece was ahead of times,due to of rarity the price goes up.
But items that are released right now the hype is fake, so the problem isn't the resellers but the brands.
>hippiebeast example:
yeezys, adidas/nike are capable of making as much as they want, all the hype is a marketing strategy.

This is the dumbest thing I've read all day because it has so many implications that make no sense. People should wear clothes because they like the style and the design not to show off their wealth or their status.

What's wrong with that?
Sure you can argue price and quality is part of why they are fashionable.
But most people just care about the appearance, how it looks, when they are talking about fashion.

What this guy is saying is you can get a pretty cool black sabbath shirt half-bleached and well printed for like $20 no shipping from asians. But this shithead wants to sell me pic related for 35.00 + S&H for a gildan tee using a design that isn't even fucking his.

Nigger you're not fooling anyone

cos resellers make it hard for people to buy the original at retail/acceptable price

how are you meant to buy yeezys or any other dead limited shoe release with all these resellers using paid bots?

Because they like the design of the shoes or they want the social points having in demand shoes gets you, but they don't want to or can't pay the amount of money it costs to get real ones.

It's pretty simple.

>paying thousands of dollars for tricky ricky clown shoes
some people just aren't quite interested in fashion enough to spend that much

if its just a visual aesthetic you want your fashion to portray, replicas do the job and do it cheaply. if you want to be seen wearing brands then obviously replicas become totally against your interests.

The way I see it, only impatient (((immature))) people purchase replicas. I'll give you a quick example. I'm on Grailed, I buy Ramones in good condition for $300, great. I've spent months looking for a pair I could afford. I wear them for years but take care of them. I put on heel taps by a reputable cobbler, I clean them whenever they show a few signs of dirt, and I enjoy them. Nice. A year or two later, I decide to sell them on Grailed because my style has changed or I could afford them new or I want to buy a newer pair, whatever. The price I sell them for? $230 worst case -- look at any sold listings of Ramones on Grailed and you'll see they hold their price exceedingly well. I pay around ~$70 to wear designer sneakers for a few years. Factoring in the cleaning and shoe taps, it's maybe $110.

Now say I'm a teenager horrible with money (as we all are at that age). Instead of seeing the $110 I see the $300 price tag on Grailed. There's no way I can afford that. Instead I see replicas going for $80-100 on Taobao and I think I'm getting a steal. S, I order them, pay the agent fee and $20 shipping fee, and it comes to $100 or so. I can't resell replicas. I wear them a bit and realize the quality isn't Rick Owens' level. The toecap starts to collapse, the upper body material wears down a bit. I wear it for a few years and the shoes die out.

I save a negligible amount by faking fakes as opposed to buying real ones and then selling them down the line. I lie to myself and my peers for a negligible amount of money. It makes no sense. This isn't even including the appearance of the shoes over time. Replicas look way worse than authentics, don't even tell me the quality can match because it can't. The one exception to this is probably Yeezys.

If anyone wants to argue against this and say "that only works for popular items," show me a replica you own of something that isn't popular. Something that isn't Rick Owens, that isn't Yeezy, that isn't Supreme, LV, Gucci, whatever.

Bonus: Here's a picture of some beat Tech Runners. Guess which one is authentic.

I think there are two kinds of people who buy fakes - People who buy fake yeezys and box logos who care about more of what other people think of them

The other more uncommon type of person is someone who buys fake rick owens or margeilas. People who do that I imagine just want to look nice without having no money.

>Why do people buy replicas?

Because there is a portion of the potential customers that are not ready to commit to the price point you set.

A knockoff with sufficient quality is able to undercut your business.

What you should do is create a sub-brand or product line that fills this gap, or you will be undercut. This is business. Fashion is especially susceptible because pattern copyright is limited at best, people make "clones" all the time and nothing is done about it. The distance between a low end and high end fashion item is low, unless you start with high cost fabrics like merino, alpaca, mohair or leather (goodyear welt quality), or obscure/unpopular fabrics like moleskin.

People are more inclined to buy a knockoff when there's no appreciable or detectable difference between real and fake. If you make a brand that just takes a regular ill fitting sweater and slaps a sticker on it, you're gonna get undercut.

Saved you 4 years of school or the cost of a market research team.

I 100000% agree with you. The only fake I've ever considered buying was a burzum tee. And that's only because it's impossible to find legit ones anymore, and those you do see are $300+. I still can't get myself to buy it cause I hate the idea of wearing fakes

>Fakes are for posers who contribute abdolutely nothing to the culture they are supposedly buying into. It's disrespectful, tasteless, and destructive.

Is this what capitalism does to your brain over time?

You think you're a part of a culture because you buy something with a brand on it? Are you fucking retarded?

Ever seen someone with their head so far up some corporations ass they refuse to buy anywhere else because BRAND ACME IS THE BEST AND I ONLY BUY THE BEST? That's you.

As a college student and getting no financial help from my parents, I pretty much wear nothing that has not been made in Italy, Portugal or France. Except for cheap underwear maybe

If I can do it with my poorfag budget, anyone else can

Also is obviously a faggot who has never worn actual luxury clothing in his sad life, otherwise he'd know how bullshit his post was

I feel like I came off as a dick in the post, I didn't mean to. I just wanted to say that most designer clothing can be bought and sold with little to no loss. I can understand being less fortunate and not having enough to even get to the price points needed for designer clothing, and I guess in that case I can imagine what it's like to buy replicas. It's very tempting. It's the impatient choice, though. You're basically paying more for dramatically less quality. Save up, buy and sell clothes for profit, do what you can in order to reach that initial limit and then your ceiling gets a bit higher. Every time you do it, your ceiling gets higher and it gets easier.

I can't see myself wearing fakes, either. I don't care too much if people do. I see fake Yeezys all the time in my college town, but I don't sweat it.

I agree, he's never worn luxury or designer clothing. The quality can't be compared. I instantly knew he was talking about the newest hyped streetwear brand of the month when he said that. VLone isn't on the same level as Margiela. Not even close.

>merino, alpaca, mohair

You can find that at you local uniqlo you know, those are not luxurious fabrics or anything

Blends you mean?

> those are not luxurious fabrics or anything

Merino might be fairly common but alpaca and mohair don't exist in any large quantity. Neither does cashmere. The industry actually has a major problem getting enough of these to supply demand, and that's the real reason everyone's doing blends now.

The marketing bullshit will have you believe it's creating superior fabrics. In reality they just can't get 100% items at the price points they want.

To be fair I used to think like him though. I thought that fast fashion knockoffs were just as good as designer brands as long as you cherry picked carefully. But then I went to the highest end shop in my town, and saw how wrong I was for myself

Now I'm broke as fuck too but at least I look pretty :((

Have you guys ever felt Vicuña before? HNNNNNNNNNNNGH if I'm ever balling out after this college degree I'm going to swoop a Loro Piana sweater or something.

Broke bois. I support my fashion addiction by buying and selling clothing please send help it's a never ending cycle.

Go to literally any Uniqlo or COS during winter, they will be filled with 100% merino or cashmere sweaters

Mohair and alpaca are uncommon in large quantities because those fabrics are unstable, the garments fall apart if there's no blending. Also those are way cheaper than cahmere, and if I remember right they're cheaper than merino as well. Alpaca is at least, but I'm not sure for mohair right now

>Vicuña

Ok now that is something you won't get at your local uniqlo though. Never seen irl yet

You've got Loro Piana's baby cashmere as well

Umm yeah

w2c box logo

So why buy fake shoes to be part of the culture? Just buy Kirkland signature shoes instead.

I own a couple of authentic adidas shoes. That's what makes it funny to buy obvious fakes. In my case it's not about being poor, it's a joke you idiot.

>factory makes yeezy shoes for 24 dollars
>adidas sells them for $8,000
>factory sells surplus stock for 25 dollars
:^)

because the real thing cost too much

That's like me taking the VW logo off a Jetta and rebranding it with Audi parts.

It is deceiptful, wrong. Don't wear what you cannot afford. You may like it, as many like Lamborghinis. You cannot afford it though.

this is a terrible analogy. audi's and vw have the same parts. this years audi is next years vw is the following years skoda. thats why skoda and vw are so reliable

Tha.. that's not how it works.
Retail of Yeezys is only about $220
If it wasn't for it being a Kanye West collab it wouldn't reach over $150.
It's the resell value of them that makes them $1000+

You literally have no idea what you're talking about

Why do ignorant people insist on commenting?

You literally contradict yourself in your post

This point is nil. Almost all brands have a product that is similar in structure and design as a high-priced model. Take Yeezys for instance, Adidas has made multiple models of shoes that look almost exactly the same and are much much cheaper in price (Adidas Tubular Shadows). Why wouldn't an intelligent buyer purchase those instead? Most of the time, since they're created by a reputable company, and not an inferior Chinese one.

Don't kid yourself. Sure, people who purchase the replicas of clothing items may do so under the guise that they like it; however, more often than not, this desire for the item is driven by its popularity and status, in which the buyer wants to perpetuate.

Secondly, most of the fake shit people wear is based off of a product that looks like complete dog shit in the first place. Look back at the Yeezys; they're Adidas Tubular Shadows with an oreo cookie sole, a gaudy seam running down to the toe of the shoe, and a burlap strap sewn on to the back of it. It's made by Adidas, so you know it wasn't made by someone who actually gave a shit about what they were sewing up.

Anyone in this thread who is trying to defend fakes through market theory or some other bullshit are probably the type of people who actually buy the fake shit; especially the ones who say shit like, "I don't own any fake stuff, but...".

>Look back at the Yeezys; they're Adidas Tubular Shadows with an oreo cookie sole, a gaudy seam running down to the toe of the shoe, and a burlap strap sewn on to the back of it.

You do realize that the shadow came after yeezys right? If you wanted to make a valid point you should've compared the yeezy v1 to roshe 1

Hmm A shoe I like is re-selled at $900 but I can get the exact same quality for $100. Which one should I get?

UAs are the closest you can get and they're around $300

You clearly don't know shit

Because streetwear is cheap and shit to begin with

I mean I get what you're saying and even though the money lost is, at least for me, no justification for buying clothing that expensive, I have ask are you buying it for the quality or for the nametag?

It seems like you value quality more than the brand they're attached to, so why not look for more comfortable alternatives instead of buying reps or authentics? Now, to be frank, I would never buy reps, just because I would never buy the original. But you have to kind of see that a more well known brand doesn't equate to better quality.

You also create a bias when you buy expensive stuff, the idea that " it costs xxx$ so I'm going to HAVE to be satisfied with my purchase". So while I agree with the shit quality replicas offer, you also have to see that the argument your presenting isn't that consistent.

That being said, I think it says a lot about "fashion" today when people would rather buy replicas than go with an alternative that isn't as flashy. But then again, most people who buy replicas do it for the brand and not the quality.

why would I buy authentic made in china yeezys for 600$ when I could buy 1:1 replicas made in a different chinese factory 3 miles away for 1/5th of that price?

holy shit
look at this idiot
>it is deceiptful
what? are you getting offended that someone making 40k less than you is wearing rick owen lookalikes?

what is UAs?

Embarrassing thread

>post yfw you realise Veeky Forums is 50% 16 year old arabs with rich parents

no this analogy is retarded
its more like if Toyota made a car that looks and performs exactly like a Lamborghini at a more reasonable price
why wouldnt you buy the cheaper replica thats exactly the same?
other than some vain attempt to show off your wealth

what about the people who arent trying to get into "fashion culture" (which is the gayest shit ive ever heard btw) and just want to wear it because they like the way it looks
and you can get something that looks EXACTLY the same for 1/10th the price

>tfw sold my zebras for 1500

get cucked poorfags

Imagine actually being a, "muh fashion culture" elitist to the point where you actually get assblasted about people buying replicas of shoes that are made in China.

I have a mix of replica and retail Yeezy (Most of the retail pieces being made in Spain/Turkey/Italy like the boots and the clothing) and I can't stress enough how negligible the differences are in these products when it comes to comparing these authentic and fake Adidas shoes that are made in China. Suede cuts/quality on the 750s aren't consistent on retail, stitching on the V2s (especially the new ones with pulltabs) can be loose and so much more on the retails. You're paying for name association, not a premium product made from quality materials. The Yeezy brand as a whole rarely has a premium feel to it besides the boots and some outerwear.

Some things are worth paying the price for because you can expect quality out of the piece, but any kind of streetwear isn't one of those things. Hell, even the majority of celebrities get their Yeezy gear for free just because they know Kanye; you know even they're not paying these exorbitant prices for these shoes. Only kids with daddy's money would consider buying a pair of 350 V2s for over $1K, because I would sure would hope a functioning adult would never spend that much on a shoe that is manufactured so haphazardly.

Look at any photograph or work of art. If you could duplicate exactly the first tiny dot of color, and then the next and the next, you would end with a perfect copy of the whole, indistinguishable from the original in every way, including the so-called "moral value" of the art itself. Nothing can transcend its smallest elements.

It doesn't matter. All perceived value and quality is illusory. Also most of the time the sweatshop workers use spare parts to make replicas to supplement their shitty income.

why do people buy yeezys at all? theyre ugly as fuck. unless they are super comfortable i just dont get it

I still feel that it's pretty disingenuous to purchase replicas regardless of quality. People know damn well that Yeezys are a status symbol and it's no coincidence that they're probably the most common replica. If you like the aesthetic but don't want to pay $220 you can get a ton of other runner shoes that share the same silhouette for much cheaper, even cheaper than replicas. They've already been mentioned, but the Roshe Runs are the obvious choice here. And regardless of the $60 price tag, the shoes were pretty solid. I wore them for ~3 years as my beaters before they died out. But people don't want Roshe Runs, they want people to think they're stylish/rich/cool/ with their newest Kanye shoe. It's the same reason people purchase fake LV/Gucci/luxury.

>>Also most of the time the sweatshop workers use spare parts to make replicas to supplement their shitty income.
Lol, if you can show an article that says this I'd be surprised. You sound like you're talking out of your ass to justify your purchasing of 1:1 yeezys friend. This is also the 2nd time you've made the argument of a perfect copy. If the replicas used the same materials and labor as authentics, they'd just be authentics.

real ones probably have a sole that yellows.

i have replicas of artworks up all over my home
am i a faggot for not buying the multimillion dollar originals and instead having these cheap poser knockoff ones that look exactly the same?
aw geez i didnt even realize darn :(

> It's disrespectful, tasteless, and destructive.
and that is good, because such ugly shoes shouldn't even cost that much

Does becoming rich come with a mandatory stick up the ass?

dude yeezys are not high fashion

you sound like an underaged faggot.

this

In my perspective i wouldnt mind buying the black and red 350s but i am not buying into the hype, i just see it as a nice addition to my techwear wardrobe but for hundreds to thousands of dollars on a fucking addidas shoe? There are much better shoes out there for that kind of price tag.

But this post is about fakes in general, not about low-tier trendy bullshit streetwear brands' fakes

I don't know about the latter because I couldn't care less about those shit brands, but I can guarantee that true luxury designers' fakes have nothing to do with the originals

But this sperg said
> these so called "expensive" clothes are really cheaply manufactured in foreign countries. So fakes aren't that much different.

Thus I pointed out that he was wrong af, that's all. But I'm pretty sure fake yeezies could be as good as real ones past some price range, since there's no quality materials or actual craftsmanship involved in their making

Where can I get some fakes??

I mean I'm all about making a profit. zebras are actually ugly as hell so they're worth the flip. but it still doesn't justify artificial demand.
the guy who bought your zebras is an idiot too

UA means unauthorized. When someone makes unauthorized shoes, they're using the manufacturers blueprint to make them, but they're obviously not authorized to make them. So it's the closest thing you can get to a real shoe but they're often more expensive than retail

Yeah except they don't buy the Tubular Shadow Adidas.

They buy chinese knockoff clones.

lmao @ this thread full of retards on their high horses clearly mad that they paid too much for their """designer""" clothing

please consider suicide.

Obviously the second is fake.

The reflective material on the back is darker than normal and the sole is too yellow. Also, the toebox on the second points down.

Aliexpress or Taobao.

because the fashion community is the only community that cares more about brand names than functionality.

The car community isn't even that stupid. A lot of people that can afford lamborghinis go with budget supercars instead, like the Nissan GTR. Nobody sits around going "LOL REJECT THAT'S NOT EVEN A LAMBORGHINI" because both cars are capable of going fast as fuck.

Poor analogy but yeah, I've never met anyone who cared that a fake was a fake except for the most douchey of trustfund kids. You'd see them all the time in manhattan, wearing 10,000 worth of clothes and still looking like hot garbage, with a level of pretentiousness that transcends this dimension.

VW is the parent company of both Audi and Lamborghini. The irony, lol.

Nobody on here is making fun of people for being able to afford resale Adidas but choosing to buy a replacement shoe like Nike Roshe Runs. Nobody on this board is saying "LOL ROSHE RUNS THAT'S NOT EVEN A YEEZY."

A more relevant situation is people who buy the cheapest 3-series BMW they can find and then giving it an M3 body kit and the M3 logos and then claims he has an M3. And in the car community, you better fucking bet he'd get made fun of.

Related: youtube.com/watch?v=IHzDk9V8rMU
The interview from the person who owns this monstrosity is GOAT material.
"How much horsepower"
"400, almost 800"

The UA pairs are not going to be completely identical to the real ones though. There are flaws, if the UA factory copied the shoe exactly they would get sued

You're a retard

Why would you buy yeezies, be they genuine or replicas, in the first place ?

Also fakes ones show, you never get actual 1:1 fakes

Cheap people would obviously buy it.

Then they would eventually realize that this is still a fucking Toyota, and that what they bought looks, feels and performs nowhere near a lambo.

Or maybe they would not if they don't know shit about cars. Then I guess they'd be all over automobile boards, bragging about how they paid ridiculously cheap to get the exact same thing as those elitist cucks who buy actual lambos. Those who know their shit would silently watch and cringe, or try to explain where they're wrong to them but they would not get their arguments because they don't have the minimum knowlegde & experience required to do so. But in the end they'd still be happy with their purchase so I guess that at least they'd have that going for them

If you read carefully the thread you'd have realized that literally no one believes that yeezies are part of "fashion culture". Everyone know they are shit to begin with, which means that it is very possible to produce accurate replicas.

What the elitists you are referring to were talking about, are the actual high end fashion designers. Not the low end overpriced streetwear brands.

i can agree with this, if you are buying high fashion then i know that shit will always be made in italy so their is quality in the craftmanship is extremely good but if someone is arguing about something that was made by some taiwanese children then i have to put my foot down

Kanye West personally hand crafts each pair

well op is suggesting yeezys and streetwear with the picture. Its dumb to buy replicas of luxery clothing because the quality and craftmasnhip is beyond normie streetwear, il be damned if someone can replicate the same quality and design of lets say a pair ricks for significantly less money.