Zimbabwe shops selling fakes world cup jerseys imported from Asia

fake adiddas

A survey has revealed that ALL sports shops in Harare are selling counterfeit replica jerseys imported/smuggled from Asia.

 Effectively,all the replica World Cup and English Premiership jerseys bought locally are FAKE! With most soccer lovers struggling to make ends meet, the cheap quality counterfeits from Asia have found a ready market in Zimbabwe. While a genuine replica jersey sells for US$50-90 in licensed shops abroad, the fake replicas are selling from as low as US$7. H-Metro checked with some of the supposed Sports Shops and failed to identify a single genuine replica. Sadly, the personnel in these shops try by all means to give the impression that the merchandise is genuine.

They DO NOT alert customers that their products are fake. One of the shops Better Ball Sports goes a step further by not giving refunds to unsatisfied customers. Instead all they can do is give you a chance to find other products of similar value. So once you discover that the merchandise is fake there is nothing you can do other than chose the best of the counterfeit products as a replacement for there are no refunds.

Everywhere else in the world where they sell genuine products, customers have between 14 and 28 days to return a defective product to either get a refund or a GENUINE replacement. All they insist on is an original receipt. When H-Metro sought a comment from Beta Ball Sports’ management at their Ximex Mall headquarters, the reporter was nearly given a thorough hiding.

“Don’t you know of the Look East Policy? You people should look for better news. Who is not selling fake soccer jerseys?” lamented a Mrs Nyemba, the lady behind BBS. When asked on whether the Look East Policy was about buying fake products, another ‘director’ of the company at Ximex Mall, said: “Don’t you think there is a better way of addressing this.”

Former Monoz treasurer and national Under-20 manager Bheki “Far” Ndlovu surprisingly got himself involved in the matter and threatened to throw out the reporter. Like a hurricane, he bulldozed his way through without understanding where the story was coming from. “Get out now and get your story standing outside,” he shouted pushing the reporter as if that was the ultimate public relations principle of BBS.

As the reporter walked out of the shop, Far continued to hurl insults. The rowdy behaviour was very strange for someone who is regarded highly in football circles for his professional behaviour both at the gates and with the junior national teams. However, Beta Ball S are not the only retailers in this business of supplying fake products.

H-Metro found that the sale of fake jerseys by established shops in the Central Business District is as rife as pubic lice among tarts!
“It’s actually difficult getting these fake products into the country after all,” said a saleswoman at the main Post Office Mall. She was also wearing one of the fake jerseys.

“Can you spot the difference?” she posed the question. “There is nowhere one can afford to part with more than 50 dollars for the original,” she said. Another salesperson at XTEP, shop located at the new Joina City complex  was not to be outdone in selling the fake sportswear.

Some of their soccer jerseys are going for as low as US$8. “Its better you buy for US$8 than the higher prizes because most of the products in the country are all fake,” said a sales person in the shop. Asked why they don’t put a marking to indicate that they are not original, he said it didn’t make business sense.

“It’s up to the customer to look for what he thinks is original,” he said. Athletes World is one of the few that seem to be doing things properly. And for that reason they seem to avoid selling counterfeits. “The limited stock that we have here is original. We cannot risk selling products that will get us into trouble if legal action is taken,” said one staff member that requested anonymity.