The Russian Industry Ministry is considering the introduction of a system of labeling for sports products from late 2018, and to certify those that are destined for professional athletes from mid-2019. The goal is to lower the sale of counterfeit products, which have become more expensive because of the depreciation of the ruble and rising labor costs in China and Vietnam, and to substitute them with locally made products.
A recent survey showed that nearly 86 percent of consumers across the Russian Federation are buying shoes which they know are fake because of their lower prices. The survey was conducted by a local consulting agency, Brand Monitor, among 10,000 respondents in almost all the regions of Russia. It found the highest tolerance levels for counterfeit shoes and clothes was in the Far Eastern part of the federation and in the Northern Caucasus, and the lowest level in Moscow. The customers expressed readiness to purchase faked shoes both in physical stores and through the internet.
Another consultant, Business Stat, previously estimated that counterfeit products accounted for 47.6 percent of the Russian shoe market in 2015, including dress, casual and athletic shoes. According to the Fashion Consulting Group, the Russian shoe market was worth $10.9 billion in 2017.
The proportion of fake athletic footwear could not be determined. Adidas, Nike and Reebok are the most frequently imitated brands, but there is evidence that copies of other smaller brands are now marketed in Russia, especially over the internet.
About 15 years ago, when we produced our first report on the Russian sporting goods market, their share was estimated at around 20 percent. Euromonitor International estimates that sales of sports footwear in Russia amounted to RUB 137.3 billion (€1.8bn-$2.2bn) in 2017.
Imports of fake sports shoes are still going on, in spite of individual and joint efforts by the major brands to curb the traffic at the international and national levels. A few days ago, Russian law enforcement agencies seized 32,000 pairs of counterfeit shoes of the brands Nike, Adidas and Reebok on the way from the province of Samara to Moscow.
It was one of the largest batches of faked branded athletic footwear caught by customs authorities in Russia in the past year or so. It would have resulted in a financial damage of around $2.1 million for the companies involved if they had come to the market, with half of the amount suffered by Nike. The episode followed the discovery by customs authority in Ussuriysk late last month of another batch of 27,000 pairs of counterfeit shoes, some of which were Nike imitations.
