Further expanding its reach in its mission to protect buyers and sellers from counterfeit luxury goods, Entrupy has announced an expansion of its partnership with TikTok as the official authentication provider of pre-owned luxury handbags for TikTok Shop U.S. to service pre-owned sneakers.
Entrupy is the trusted third-party luxury authenticator of many footwear retailers including Unboxed, CoolKicks, Soleply to protect businesses, buyers and sellers from transacting in counterfeit and fraudulent sneakers. Notably, the company has also recently expanded its support to eight new sneaker brands including New Balance, Alexander McQueen, Christian Louboutin, Dior, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Off-White.
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While many people think of handbags first when considering the counterfeit market, Vidyuth Srinivasan, cofounder and chief executive officer of Entrupy, said sneakers are not far behind when it comes to how consumers are shopping. Counterfeit sneakers are a multibillion-dollar business and, like counterfeit handbags, pose a threat to brands and consumers.
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According to Run Repeat, the counterfeit sneaker market is estimated to be over five times the size of the legitimate sneaker market (valued at nearly $450 billion in 2021). Between 2022 and 2032, the sneaker resale market is expected to see a 401.9 percent increase.
Srinivasan added that given the prevalence, “knockoffs are becoming increasingly difficult to spot resulting in dupes being put into the hands (and onto the feet) of unbeknown buyers.”
In part, he said, this is due to technological advancements that have made the ability to manufacture counterfeit goods easier with better quality. And in addition to counterfeits becoming harder to identify, crime, like return fraud, is being committed as a result when large department stores do not have the correct authentication technology put in place to protect against it.
“There is also a lack of education around the issue of counterfeiting as a whole,” Srinivasan said. “What many people don’t know is that counterfeiting actually has a direct and devastating impact on both workers and the environment.”
For its part in providing more education around counterfeits, Entrupy releases an annual State of the Fake report that looks at proprietary data along with rare insights they have garnered from hundreds of thousands of AI-driven evaluations performed on products from around the world, to build awareness around the murky world of counterfeits.
At the same time, Entrupy has seen the growth of social commerce and Gen Z contributing to the rise and popularity of dupe culture with a lack of regulations and policies when it comes to counterfeit items being sold online. A rise in live shopping, where buyers and sellers interact through livestream video with real-time transactions, has propelled selling pre-loved items and luxury goods as well.
As a platform that offers a live shopping experience, Srinivasan told WWD, that through its partnership with Entrupy, TikTok Shop is committed to protecting the rights of owners from intellectual property infringement and does not tolerate the sale of counterfeit products.
“In working with Entrupy, TikTok Shop is further protecting the safety and integrity of all users by requiring sellers on the platform to use a third-party authentication,” Srinivasan said. “Entrupy will provide TikTok sellers with the best-in-class authentication tools that are instrumental in establishing trust, maintaining quality standards and delivering a seamless positive experience for both sellers and shoppers.”
As the counterfeit business continues to hurt brands with loss of revenue and relationships with consumers, Srinivasan encouraged companies to invest in end-to-end product traceability solutions.
“By extending these solutions to consumers, brands can empower customers to verify a product’s authenticity and identity at the point of sale, consumption or in the after-market,” he said. “Brands also commonly work with governments and law enforcement agencies to support investigations into counterfeit activities and provide evidence that leads to the prosecution of counterfeiters and their distributors and buyers.”