Knock-Off Goodies Becoming More Popular

As the price of gas- and, really, the price of everything- goes up, the money left over for luxury accessories is evaporating. Just because the money isn't there, though, doesn't mean that the human desire for status symbols has similarly disappeared. Instead, entrepreneurs are capitalizing on those who covet the illustrious goods by offering inexpensive, highly functional but legally questionable alternatives.

They're known as replicas, knock-offs, look-alikes, bootlegs and a plethora of other terms. What they really are, though, is counterfeit. As desktop technology races ahead, the ability of an enterprising person to create an amazingly realistic copy of pretty much any item edges closer and closer to perfection. The term "counterfeit" may have been traditionally associated with money and horribly overstated Rolex watches, but modern replicating techniques have spread the practice to produce knock-off watches, sunglasses, purses, wallets, shirts, suits, belts, suitcases and nearly anything else imaginable. Basically, if it has a popular brand name, it probably has a counterfeit equivalent somewhere in the world.

There are strong arguments both for and against the use of replicas. Their growing ubiquity is a clear indication that consumers have little resistance to getting a thousand-dollar watch, for example, for fifty bucks from the Internet... or for a little less from the seedy looking guy on the corner. For many in the middle-class, the luxury of spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on an incidental accessory just isn't within reach anymore. By offering a striking visual appearance and roughly the same quality of items available in the neighborhood Wal*Mart, replicas are an easily affordable way to impressively accessorize on a budget.

The casual observer rarely knows the difference between an authentic item and a replica. The days of identifying a Rolex knock-off by it's tell-tale ticking second hand are gone, ushered out by technological advances making automatic movements relatively inexpensive. Modern replicas are so good, in fact, that only a professional or educated collector can identify them on sight and the general population is not often in the presence of such an adept eye. As websites pushing bootleg products say, "if you buy a replica, only you will know the difference."

Knowing the difference, though, can be a nasty blow to the self-esteem. Wearing a replica, of course, is not quite as satisfying to the ego as proudly showing off an authentic manifestation of style and desire. The simple act of purchasing an authentic luxury marque is often rewarding in and of itself. Experts cited online tend to agree, pointing to the opulent experience created by high-end boutiques such as Mont Blanc, Coach and Movado.

As one might expect, executives at such companies often view replicas as serious threats to their market share. While some companies do not share this opinion (Movado, for example, has publicly acknowledged that replicas help promote the company name in the marketplace), many company contacts assert that knock-off items do not accurately represent the quality standards of the actual brand and overall cheapen the image of their products.

Quality certainly is a consideration when buying a replica item. Huge industrial advances in China and increasing resources due to American outsourcing of manufacturing have enabled Asian counterfeiters to dramatically improve the quality of their offerings, bringing the knock-offs up to roughly the same standards as other Chinese products found in discount outlets such as Target and Wal*Mart. Authentic brands have very strict and exceptionally high quality expectations: rogue strings and variations in the suppleness of leather, for example, are never tolerated in name-brand items. By comparison, such nuances are the norm among replicas. While a replica might be expected to last for a year or two, high-end luxury products are often considered a lifetime investment.

In essence, if an air of refinement, a striking appearance and the look of success on a budget (or simply an aversion to contributing to a corporate bottom line) are what you want, replicas may not be such a bad choice... especially if you don't mind sidestepping the law. If you want true quality, a satisfying and pampering purchase experience, a look of perfection that can never be exactly copied and an item that will last a lifetime without fear of arrest, buying an authentic brand is really the only option.