The Clothing industry losses up to $12 billion to counterfeit clothing.

Source:  BusinessWeek, “The Most Counterfeited Products,”  October 2008.

Regional specific losses:

People in Brazil spent an estimated $3.64 billion on counterfeit clothing in 2003. Source: Brazil-U.S. Business Council, “Counterfeiting and Piracy in Brazil: The Economic Impact,” 2004,(accessed: October 9. 2005).

People in Italy spent an estimated $4.6 billion on counterfeit clothing in 2006. Source: Dow Jones, “Italy Contraband Market Europe’s No.1: Revenue Top EUR 7 Billion-Assoc,” Smart Money, October 24, 2007.

At the 2009 Super Bowl in Tampa, US Customs seized 15,653 counterfeit items worth $1,826,562.

At the 2008 Super Bowl in Arizona, US Customs seized 10,212 counterfeit items worth $542,120.

Source:  Megan Chuchmach, “Super Bowl Fans: Watch Out for Counterfeit NFL Goods,” ABC News, February 5, 2010.

The United States Customs and Border Protection donated $78 Million of counterfeit clothes that it seized in 2009 to various charities.   The counterfeited logos were removed and only essentials such as clothes and shoes were donated to the organizations.

Source:  Jim Dwyer, “Closing Pipeline to Needy, City Shreds Clothes,” New York Times, January 12, 2010.

Sales of counterfeit Bob Marley merchandise is estimated to generate $596 Million in sales per year.

Legal sales of Bob Marley merchandise generates only $4 Million each year.

Source:  Associated Press, “Marley heirs wage global war on trademark pirates,” Yahoo News, October 31, 2009.

According to the Guardian, fashion label Burberry is believed to be the most copied fashion label by counterfeit manufacturers, ahead of labels such as Louis Vuitton and Gucci.

Source: “Counterfeit fashion: The most copied designer labels,” Guardian, March 17, 2009.

In 2005, sports apparel maker Colombia Sportswear seized 250,000 counterfeit pieces of clothing.

Source: Laura Palotie and Alexandra Zendrian, “Attack of the $35 Gucci Handbag,” INC, April 29, 2008.

The European Union released its 2008 Counterfeit Seizures numbers.

In all, 178 million counterfeit items were seized by Custom authorities in 2008, up from 79 million in 2007.

44 percent of all products seized were pirated CDs and DVDs.

23 percent were counterfeit cigarettes.

10 percent were counterfeit clothing.

54 percent of all counterfeit goods seized originated from China.  However, a majority of the fake food and drinks seized came from Indonesia, and most fake medicines came from India.

Source:  “EU seizures of fake goods up 125%,” BBC News, July 9, 2009.

An organized crime group in the Korean community of Washington D.C. was involved in a wide range of illicit activities.

From the Washington Post:

The small white bungalow on Backlick Road, near a major Fairfax County intersection, seemed like an unlikely spot for a sweatshop. But when police and federal agents burst in, they found several women hunched over industrial sewing machines, cranking out counterfeit designer clothing, working off the debt they owed for passage to America.

The astonishing discovery came during a two-year investigation into a Korean organized crime ring based in Annandale that trafficked in untaxed cigarettes. Undercover officers and agents started off making $5 million in sales of contraband cigarettes. That led to the crime ring’s money laundering and numerous financial schemes. There was even a murder-for-hire plot.

A tip from an informant helped break open a criminal enterprise that stretched from Northern Virginia to New York City, according to court records in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. Seventeen people have been sent to federal prison.

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.

36 million people purchased counterfeit clothing in Brazil, spending an estimated $3.64 billion in 2003.

Source: Brazil-U.S. Business Council, “Counterfeiting and Piracy in Brazil: The Economic Impact,” 2004,(accessed: October 9. 2005).