Why Do People Buy Fake Designer Bags Or Fake Designer Anything?

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#3,061
uber-chic said:
I've never understood this, but why do people insist on buying fake knock offs of designer anything, especially bags? In my opinion I could never get any satisfaction knowing that I was toting around a fake bag or fake watch or fake anything. If I can't afford to buy it, then I'd rather buy something in my price range instead of posing like I can afford something I can't.

Some people argue that they'd rather spend their money on something else like fixing their house or going on vacation, and would rather carry a knock off instead, and then have the nerve to make fun of people that buy the real thing. What they don't realize is that people that can usually afford a real $2,000 bag, can also afford to fix they're house and go on vacation too, without having to sacrifice one for the other...it's all relative.

Buying knock off bags and seeing women with knock offs doesn't make any sense. It's like a guy wearing a fake rolex, you just can't take him seriously, or respect him for that matter. I would rather see him wearing a timex...the same applies to women. If you can't afford the bag, stick to coach or kate spade or something, right? You're fooling no one but yourself, where's the satisifaction there?

Thoughts anyone? I don't mean to stir or churn, but I just had to!:p
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I agree with you. And the "fake bag - industry" is just bad. I mean, designers that have worked hard to reached a position in a fashion house design a bag, and then somebody just copy it. It's unfair! It's stealing.
 
#3,062
I think it's because designer bags, shoes etc have designs that you don't always encounter in the high street and if a person cannot afford them but love the design, they opt to get a knock-off instead. I don't think it reflects badly on the person; different people chose to spend their money in different ways and have different priorities in their lives. And it might be a case of a person who can afford a luxury item but might not think it's worth spending money on, and decides to get an imitation, since like someone said above, both bags (if the item is a bag) do the same thing. Of course quality comes into play, but I don't think that the prices of the bags that have even the highest quality out there can be justified, (lest the bags are made with precious jewels!), so that many people are perfectly content with a cheaper knock off. It is at its core a matter of vanity in my opinion, and the other really interesting question is why people choose to pay really exorbitant amounts on designer bags? :smile1:
 
#3,063
I believe if one cannot afford the real thing, it's best to opt for a good quality bag with nice and durable leather, instead of carrying a fake and pretending it's the real stuff. I've even seen ladies carrying fake LV and went to LV store! It's a shame.
 
#3,064
I know plenty of people who can afford real bags/jewels and just choose to wear fakes. It's not necessarily about what you can afford, it's about priorities. I find it borderline unethical to try to pass of fakes as real, but I get the reasoning.
 
#3,065
MissStepcut said:
I know plenty of people who can afford real bags/jewels and just choose to wear fakes. It's not necessarily about what you can afford, it's about priorities.
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:goodpost:

I agree. I have a friend who owns both real and fake bags. She'll buy a $$$$ bag because she likes the look of it and if she sees a guy selling a fake bag on the street that she likes, she'll buy that as well. She assumes that most of the bags on sidewalk tables are probably copies of something, but goes more for the look and function of the bag and pays little attention to the designers themselves.

I personally wouldn't buy a fake, but I know many people who do and it doesn't really bother me.
 
#3,068
jane said:
If I wanted a cheap and poorly made handbag that was guaranteed to fall apart in a couple months, I would just shop at Wal-Mart. But I like my bags to be of high-quality, to last for years. You get what you pay for. It just happens that these bags have a known brand name attached to them, but to be honest, I don't care as much about the name as I do about the craftsmanship and design behind it.

Fakes are disgusting.
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I totally agree w/ Jane~ I couldn't have said it better!:tup: The flawless craftsmanship, expert design, company history, reputation & stellar customer service are the (main) reasons that I purchase only authentic bags~ also a huge reason is that (most) high-end luxury brand companies always stand behind their products regardless of age of the item~ I.e.one of my older (circa 2000) LV Speedy bag's zipper broke and upon taking it into the Rodeo Dr. LV they happily fixed it free of charge even though it was purchased over 10 years ago..not many companies would do that w/ no questions asked & at no charge. Also I recently went into the Beverly Center LV and told them that I lost the clochette for one of my Alma bags & I was afraid that they would tell me that I'd have to bring the actual bag in to be able to get a new one which my salesguy (Jordan Vega~ awesome sales associate at the Beverly Center LV) was so great he simply looked up my name in their computer system which confirmed my customer purchase history & he immediately gave me a brand new clochette AND a brand new lock & key set at no charge!:yahoo: I did not expect to receive one at no charge I was just worried that he wouldn't even give me one if I didn't physically have the bag w/ me~ so needless to say I was super happy and super thankful! So this is exactly why I only purchase authentic!
 
#3,069
I've never really had much desire for luxury items. (I'm here because of a search for scarves, of all things! So now I might want an Hermes scarf. A specific one. It's out of my budget, but not impossibly so.) I've never paid more than 50 for a purse. But I've never bought a knockoff either. And the people I know who have luxury items are I think are probably sporting knockoffs, mainly because they feel fake. Not the items, but the people themselves. I live in S. Florida, there's a lot of people with money around, but there are also a lot of wannabes and hanger-ons. It's more about appearances than authenticity. It's about flashing the cash. But there's also a lot of fraud too. I wouldn't be surprised if half the people with fake goods thought they were real. You know, there's some guy on the street giving you a good deal from his trunk. Some people are naive, some are suckers, some know and are just turning a blind eye. So back to the first statement, I never wanted luxury items because I perceived the people who had them as shallow, narcissists with more money than sense. After perusing this forum, I see the beauty and value of the real items, and correspondingly the real people who own them.

It's amazing that this discussion keeps going and going, but since the issue will never go away, it makes sense. It seems that everyone agrees that fakes are not good. I personally dislike counterfeiting and piracy. After finding this small video production company stopped making a certain video series due to horrendous piracy, it's made me very aware of the impact of this issue. So, lately, I find I'm buying with a conscious. I check manufacture locations and company ethics. It's not hard, the information is readily available. If possible I buy pre-owned, local, US made, or European. If I know it's a copy, I'm not buying it. I'm not judging people about it(except for my relatives who seem to judge me for not wanting to be pretentious and show off everything they've earned. We're all Asian, so there's a lot of that going on!)
 
#3,070
After reading through some comments here, all i can say is... Its' weird how other people's actions (like buying fakes) that other people have no absolute control, bring about the ugly side of other people (condescending, hateful words and negative energy directed towards others).
 
#3,071
peanutleigh said:
It's so sad that people think it's okay to buy counterfeit goods for several different reasons. I think it's obviously just a status or fitting in thing but what they don't realize is they will be much more respected if they buy a bag or shoes in their price range. Once I realize someone is wearing a fake I immediately look down on them. If you can't afford something, then deal with it! There's tons of other ways to look chic while on a budget.

I myself could never carry a fake because of the constant paranoia I'd feel wondering if anyone knew it wasn't real. As well as the following reasons :

1. The designer that worked so hard is now being cheated.
2. It supports child labor and sweatshops.
3. It supports drug trafficking, organized crime and terrorism.

Many people don't realize the last 2 reasons are directly affected by fake handbags and sunglasses, etc. It's important to tell this to people you know - it may make them think twice.
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This! Absolutely spot on. People should just think twice before buying. In France, I am glad that fraud/counterfeit is synonym to CRIME with all it implies.
I am quite surprised that fellow tpfers don't condone counterfeit...quite shocking actually.
 
#3,072
uber-chic said:
I've never understood this, but why do people insist on buying fake knock offs of designer anything, especially bags? In my opinion I could never get any satisfaction knowing that I was toting around a fake bag or fake watch or fake anything. If I can't afford to buy it, then I'd rather buy something in my price range instead of posing like I can afford something I can't.

Some people argue that they'd rather spend their money on something else like fixing their house or going on vacation, and would rather carry a knock off instead, and then have the nerve to make fun of people that buy the real thing. What they don't realize is that people that can usually afford a real $2,000 bag, can also afford to fix they're house and go on vacation too, without having to sacrifice one for the other...it's all relative.

Buying knock off bags and seeing women with knock offs doesn't make any sense. It's like a guy wearing a fake rolex, you just can't take him seriously, or respect him for that matter. I would rather see him wearing a timex...the same applies to women. If you can't afford the bag, stick to coach or kate spade or something, right? You're fooling no one but yourself, where's the satisifaction there?

Thoughts anyone? I don't mean to stir or churn, but I just had to!:p
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a person buying a 20$ bag will probably ended up buying several$20 dollar bags and they will always look cheap
they are made in a third world country with bad working conditions

I would rather spend more on a quality bag and buy less and less often

Imo thats more environmentally and socially responsible
 
#3,073
I've been reading this blog for a while now and got sucked into this topic and just wanted to share my 2 cents. I personally don't care what a person carries, be it real, knock off, or handmade, so long as they love it the way any handbag should be loved. :smile1:

My real disgust on the topic was inflamed just the other day while shopping for a new bag and a coworker began bragging about her own collection. Now, I won't say I own any of the high end brands because, honestly, I can't afford LV or Hermes or Bottega Veneta (lowly 911 dispatcher making menial wages but because I help people and love that, I stay). However, I have amassed some nice bags in my time (a Marc Jacobs clutch, some Kate Spades, a Michael Kors that I adore, and some Dooneys and nicer Coach bags... nothing too special but they all are understated, timelessly elegant and lovely to look at). So coworker, whom I already dislike because of her "anything you can do, I can do better" attitude on EVERYTHING, started going on about all of her "authentic" Louis Vuitton's she'd purchased. Come to find out, she had a friend stationed in Korea and he was able to get them for just a few hundred dollars (authentic...riiiiiight). She continued on about her fake Coach bags or something, I'm not really sure -- I'd pretty well tuned her out at this point -- until she proudly remarked, "I had some nice fake Coach bags my friend bought for about twenty dollars that I was able to sell on eBay and pass off as legit for several hundred."

At this point, I stopped what I was doing, slowly turned to her, and said flatly, "You're a terrible person." Because that's what she is. (If I may have just offended anyone, take comfort in the fact that it's okay because it really is true. Her snotty attitude, the way she inserts herself into everyone else's conversations, asking blatanly ovious questions meant to steer conversations back toward herself -- she just cemented it all in stone admitting to that).

My point is she. She is what makes counterfeit items so bad. The fact that someone, somewhere, duped another by passing off a replica as authentic, forfeiting their integrity in the process and undermining another's trust in others. If they get away with it once, as she did, they'll almost certainly try it again, and again, and again, as she did, chipping away at society's ability to believe the word of the fellow man.
 
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#3,074
I'd also like to add that just yesterday she proudly showed me her new Fossil bag and it was immediately apparent it was also a fake. I'm pretty sure it was actually pleather, because even though Fossil is not a high end designer at all, they still use nice, quality leather and this thing just felt like a dead fish in the hand.

I'm just curious how long before it, too, lands on eBay with the title of "authentic." Sigh.
 
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