Counterfeit Shoes Statistics

The boom of the shoe industry is accompanied by the rise of its counterfeit market. This report presents historical and up-to-date figures—the then, the now, and the next—of the counterfeit shoe industry. 

Counterfeit shoe market overview

• Towards the end of 2023, the counterfeit sneaker market will be valued near $600 billion, about 1.5 times greater than the legitimate footwear industry.
• In 2022, the fake shoe industry tallied $500 billion in revenue. This is 1.3 times the value of the original shoe market.
• In 2019, the legitimate footwear market is 3.6 times larger than the counterfeit shoe industry. 
• Due to the pandemic, the counterfeit shoe market revenue exploded to $450 billion in 2020 and about $495 billion in 2021. 
• From its value in 2020 to 2023, the counterfeit market will register a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10%. 
• From 2019 to 2022, the fake shoe industry has grown by 348.8% in just three years.
• At this rate, the counterfeit shoe market will breach the $1 trillion mark in about 25 years according to mathematical models. 
• The counterfeit shoe revenue has risen by an astounding 1200% from its $46.1 billion value in 2013 to a near $600 billion in 2023.
• About 55.2% of online shoppers cannot tell the difference between fake and original footwear products. 
• One in four online shoppers bought and received a fake item in 2019.

Legitimate vs. counterfeit shoe market revenue

Counterfeit shoe market share

• Compared to the $4.2 trillion total counterfeit product sales, fake footwear snatched an 11.9% share in 2022 at $500 billion.  
• From 24% of the entire fake goods revenue in 2019, the market share of counterfeit shoes has dropped by 12.1% by the end of 2022. 
• The change in percentage share of counterfeit shoes relative to the global fake product revenue from 2013 to 2022 is a mere 1.9%. 
• However, the share of fake footwear relative to the global trade value has risen by 1.3% from 2019 to 2022. 
• Due to the pandemic, the share of the entire counterfeit market relative to global trade has skyrocketed by 10.5%. 
• Consequently, the fake footwear market has risen from 0.6% in 2019 to 1.9% share by the end of 2022.

Counterfeit shoe market share

Counterfeit shoe market in the United States

• By 2023, about 14% of all counterfeit products seized by US customs will be counterfeit footwear. 
• In 2022, the percentage of counterfeit shoes is only 13%.
• The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) of the United States has seized 20,812 shipments of counterfeit goods that contained nearly 25 million products. 
• Equivalently, over 3 million fake sneakers were seized in 2022. The retail value would have been around $90 million if the goods were real.
• In 2021, 13% of all seized items in the US were fake footwear goods. 
• The estimated value of the goods is $96.7 million, which is only 3% of the total value seized. 
• Back in 2020, the retail value of fake footwear items amounted to $63.2 million, 4.8% of the value of all seized items. 
• Comparing the values from 2020 to 2021, the value of seized fake shoes increased by $33.5 million. 
• However, the percentage share of fake footwear to the total value of seized items decreased by 1.8%.

Counterfeit shoe market in the US

Counterfeit shoe production

• Accumulated data reveals that 76.5% of all counterfeit footwear producers seized from 2017-2019 are sourced from China. 
• Hongkong trails at 11.8%. 
• Turkey and Singapore are placed third and fourth with 2.4% and 1.4% share of fake shoe production, respectively. 
• The United Arab Emirates was the source of 0.5% of all counterfeit shoes produced from 2017 to 2019. 
• The rest of the world combined accounted for 7.4% of all counterfeit shoes. 

Origin of counterfeit shoes

Counterfeit shoes by brand

• Nike is the most counterfeited shoe brand in the world. Twenty-two of the twenty-five (80%) most faked sneakers are from Nike. Nike also took every place in the top 10 most replicated sneakers. 
• A fake Nike kick can sell between $5 to $200 on the counterfeit market. 
• The black market value of the 25 most replicated shoes in the world is approximately $3.7 million. 
• On average, the representative price of the original shoe is 16% cheaper. Approximately $37 less than the true retail value. 
• However, the most counterfeited shoe is the Air Jordan 1 Retro High OG Dark Mocha which has a retail price of $170. 
• A counterfeit Air Jordan 1 Retro High OG Dark Mocha has an average representative price of $128, 32.8% cheaper than a legitimate pair. 
• As of May 2023, about $407,552 worth of Air Jordan 1 Retro High OG Dark Mocha were sold on online sites worldwide.
• Travis Scott 1 x Fragment Low is the second most replicated shoe which sells 8.7% cheaper than the $150 original retail price.
• The third in the list is Travis Scott 1 which has a rep price of $139. Its original selling price is $150. 
• The fourth most replicated shoe, Nike Dunk Low Black White 20 sells 11.1% less than the $110 original price.
• Travis Scott Dunk is the fifth most counterfeited shoe and has a rep price of $129. Compared to its true retail value of $150, a fake is 16.3% cheaper. 

Retail and representative prices of the most counterfeited shoes

• Globally, there are about 106,710 monthly online searches for fake footwear. 
• Adidas Yeezy is the most googled brand for fakes, averaging 46,180 online searches a month. 
• The main line of Adidas, however, only scored 1,940 monthly search volume. 
• With an average of 40,580 monthly Google searches, the Air Jordan is the second most sought-after counterfeit shoe. 
• Nike has a mean monthly search volume of 7,820. 
• Converse and Vans have tallied 4,070 and 3,400 online searches of fake shoes per month. 
• Skechers is the least googled brand for counterfeit shoes with a monthly average of 110 online searches. 

Online searches for counterfeit shoes by brand

Anti-counterfeiting measures

• To combat the infiltration of counterfeit goods into the market, the anti-counterfeit packaging industry has catapulted to a $135.7 billion industry in 2022. 
• It is projected to grow by 12.1% compounded annually from 2023 to 2030.  
• The footwear and apparel market share in the anti-counterfeit packaging market is worth $23.9 billion. 
• This is equivalent to 17.8% of the entire industry in 2022. 
• In 2019, the percentage of anti-counterfeit packaging dedicated to footwear and apparel is 8.9%. 
• Comparing the values from 2019 to 2022, the share of footwear and apparel in the anti-counterfeiting packaging industry has doubled in just 3 years. 

Footwear and apparel anti-counterfeiting packaging market share

Sources