The Real Story Behind Fake Sneakers

Elaborate disguises, subterfuge, slightly subpar swooshes: welcome to the world of counterfeit-sneaker manufacturing. In the latest issue of The New York Times Magazine, Nicholas Schmidle voyages inside the knockoff factories of Putian, a Chinese town teeming with ersatz Nikes, Adidases, Pumas, and Reeboks. “Shoes from Putian are designed primarily for export,” writes Schmidle, “and in corporate-footwear and intellectual-property rights circles, Putian has become synonymous with high-end fakes, shoes so sophisticated that it is difficult to distinguish the real ones from counterfeits.”