My Experience with Counterfeit Bags in Istanbul
With China, Bangladesh, Taiwan & other countries in Asia leading the market in counterfeit goods, some wonder why would one go to the effort of coming to Turkey just to purchase counterfeit goods.
Why it happens
The fact is that Turkey’s textile industry is world renown. Most of the top (particularaly popular for quality) brands manufacture their clothing, luxury goods all in Turkey.
Naturally, the people who’ve worked for these companies grasp the technique(s), details and finesse of the art. They often venture off into creating their own brand retaining all of the quality, if not improving it. Unfortunately most (if not all) fail.
This failure has financial repercussions, and one thing that makes quick money is selling counterfeit goods! Hence why there are so many in Turkey.
What separates the Turkish counterfeits from the eastern-Asia counterfeits?
Unlike the eastern-Asia counterfeits, Turkey uses real leather, this does not just involve the use of using any other leather, they will go out of their way to find that particular leather.
The particular bag could be using Italian leather, the workshop would go out and find that particular leather and use it in the bag.
There are bags with actual snake-skin, crocodile-skin and various other rare materials. They are all maintained in the counterfeit design.
Gold / Diamond Encrusted Bags are also available, but as you can imagine the pricing on these can seem to absurd, especially when you’re not buying from the official retailer. You’re looking at roughly $750+ USD for these.
Can you just walk-in and buy them?
The fact is that Police are cracking-down on these stores. Sure, when you visit the Grand Bazaar you’ll see a bunch of stores selling counterfeits, but the quality is very sub-par.
The high quality goods are cracked down on, it includes prison sentences, hefty fines as well as P.Is posing as detectives.
As a result, a lot of these stores have changed the way they operate. 10 years ago you could go to a store, and he would have a staircase of some sort leading upstairs or downstairs into a showroom with all the goods.
How can I find them?
Today, they often rent a flat nearby (by not too close), only retail to foreigners or people that appear ‘trustworthy’. They’ll take you on a nice long walk, most-likely to avoid you remembering the way there. When you walk-in to that apartment your jaw will drop!
The showroom is heaven for the ladies, a money-pit for the men and a dream for the counterfeit retailers in western-countries.
The quality is outstanding, come with your own real-bag and check the differences, you’ll find bags-wise they are immaculate. Personally I think the shoes weren’t perfect replicas but I wear very large sizes that LV doesn’t even sell lol.
I personally on many occassions have had experiences where they even show you how they corrected the original product: “Look Sir, on your LV camera bag, the zipper gets stuck if you do this, to correct this we added this leather padding etc. etc.”.
I had a look, bought one (it was a Friday), took a few photos for family back home. They all picked a few so i went back the following Monday. Only to find… the flat was locked, noone there to open the door?
I walked myself back to the store and talked to the guy, and he revealed that they have to change the flat every few days to avoid police-raids.
In short: You’re not going to find a retail store. You’re better off finding someone through Facebook and visiting one of the stores and asking about it. I would not recommend the stores in Grand Bazaar as their quality is not the best in terms of the ORIGINAL replica counterfeits.
In my experience the stores in Nisantasi were much better quality, but came with a price tag. The pricing ranged from $350–650 USD. Buying bulk can get you a hefty discount.
They do not sell online, the ones that do often rip you off with lesser quality bags. Your best bet is coming to Turkey (Istanbul is better) and finding them yourself!
