A huge number of counterfeit backpacks and bags have worried authentic producers and confused customers in Vietnam given their ubiquity.

Many products in the guise of famous brands – including Leaves King, Nike, and Adidas – are sold here under a wide range of prices and designs.

Most of them do not have stamps, labels or warranties.

World-renowned brands at local market

Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper journalists followed Nguyen Mai Anh, a shopper who is traveling soon, to the Saigon Square shopping mall in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1 to buy backpacks one day.

The mall sells a host of ‘designer’ products with unpredictable prices. A small leather bag with the ‘Gucci’ brand name was being sold for VND650,000 (US$31) that day.

The bag, which had been imported from Hong Kong, according to the seller, had no import stamp or instruction label.

Another shop demanded VND750,000 ($36) for a large blue-gray ‘Lacoste’ handbag. The vendor said it had been imported, while the shop owner added that it did not have stamped warranty cards. “It’s up to you to preserve the quality,” he asserted.

A ‘The North Face’ backpack was priced at VND700,000 ($33) and was neither stamped nor labeled.

Most of the ‘branded’ items under world-renowned names including Montblanc, Gucci, Lacoste, Leaves King, Nike, and Adidas cost from VND500,000 ($24) to VND700,000 ($33) each.

Many shop owners affirmed that the goods were imported from Hong Kong, adding that they have a limited volume to sell.

Other shops on Ton That Tung Street in District 1 and Phan Van Tri Street in Binh Thanh District also sell ‘signature’ products, but at cheaper prices. A large Nike backpack was being sold for VND450,000 ($22), while bags and sandals cost VND250,000 ($12) to VND350,000 ($16).

All the products, which were said to be imported, had been carelessly stamped with a logo.

The rising demand of customers for backpacks and bags has led to an increasing number of shops specializing in selling these products.

Huu Thuong in Binh Thanh District, who wanted to buy a camera backpack, was shocked to see a large number of ‘branded’ packs which were guaranteed as “genuine and cheap” on the Internet.

“A Lowepro camera backpack was being sold for VND2.2 million ($103) on an e-commerce website and cost only VND1.45 million ($68) on a social media site. The price listed on its producer’s website was nearly VND3.5 million ($165),” Thuong said.

Counterfeits abound

The director of a Vietnamese handbag manufacturer asserted that most of the products sold online are counterfeits, facsimiles, or items of unknown origin.

“Big companies always issue a license to the branch that sells its product to guarantee the legality. A legal seller who sells real products must have this license,” he added.

A representative of a brand whose handbags and shoes were counterfeited said genuine products only have a few models and each unit costs from VND1.2 million ($56) to VND1.7 million ($82), while fakes are much cheaper and have a wide range of designs.

“Our real products have clear stamps, labels, the importer’s name, and its address,” he said.  

Poor-quality bags are often advertised as either Vietnamese products for export or genuine goods carried as hand luggage into the country to fool customers. In fact, these items are produced by small facilities using surplus materials from the genuine factories.

“A facility could make more than 1,000 counterfeit products of a well-known brand, especially since the bag factories of big companies are mainly located in Vietnam,” the director of a local bag brand revealed. 

Fake bags often have counterfeit names and designs to make them look real. Tran Ba Dung, deputy director of Huong Mi, a Vietnamese bag producer, said counterfeit products use low-quality materials, including zippers and fabric, while the seams are also less sophisticated.

Such bogus items are sent to the market through vendors with an initial price of VND50,000 ($2) to VND250,000 ($12) each unit. These prices can become five to six times higher after a fake brand name is attached.

Nguyen Tri Kien, director of Miti, a Vietnamese handbag and suitcase producer, said that counterfeit products affect not only the reputation of genuine brands, but also the market share of local companies which are trying to establish a strong presence in the country.

“Vietnamese don’t have the chance to use real products, in fact they are unable to distinguish them from counterfeits,” Kien lamented. 

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