Clothing companies in the United States are increasingly hiring private attorneys and investigators to find counterfeit articles of clothing being sold in stores. 

The Los Angeles Times recently reported on a Counterfeit Jeans Detective who spends his days finding fake pairs of jeans. 

From the LA Times:

In the midday heat of downtown Los Angeles, Chris Johnson squints at the jeans-clad plastic buttocks of mannequins lined up in Fashion District storefronts. 

He’s looking for something special: a horseshoe design stitched in the jeans’ back pockets. He passes stores selling counterfeit Coach bags and Prada sunglasses, then heads down an alley to a store where two men are checking their cellphones and looking bored. 

“Have any True Religion, size 6?” he asks. One of the shopkeepers looks around to make sure no one else is nearby, then disappears into a back room. He emerges holding two pairs of women’s jeans, complete with the trademarked True Religion horseshoes on the pocket and True Religion tags, picturing a Buddha holding a guitar. Johnson buys one pair — which usually retails for between $170 and $400 — for $60. 

$18 million worth of counterfeit clothing from China was seized by US Customs last year.