Los Angeles–U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers assigned to the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) cargo operations, in coordination with import specialists at the Apparel, Footwear & Textiles Center of Excellence and Expertise (Apparel Center), seized 1,755 pairs of Nike and Adidas counterfeit shoes arriving via express air cargo from Hong Kong.
The seized items included 597 pairs of counterfeit Nike Air Force One shoes and 918 pairs of other counterfeit Nike shoes, as well as 48 pairs of Adidas Mickey Edition shoes and 192 pairs of other counterfeit Adidas shoes. If genuine, the seized merchandise would have had an estimated manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $207,000.
CBP import specialists assigned to the Apparel Center confirmed that the shoes were in violation of the Nike and Adidas registered trademarks. CBP officers discovered the goods while conducting an enforcement exam on a shipment of 22 boxes that arrived on July 3. In an attempt to evade detection, smugglers falsely manifested the shipment as “plastic ornament.”
Nationwide in fiscal year (FY) 2019, CBP seized 27,599 shipments containing goods that violated intellectual property rights. The total estimated manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of the seized goods, had they been genuine, increased to nearly $1.5 billion from over $1.4 billion in FY 2018.
Watches and jewelry topped the list for number of seizures with 4,242, representing 15 percent of all seizures. Watches and jewelry continued as the top product seized by total MSRP with seizures valued at over $687 million, representing 44 percent of the total. Wearing apparel and accessories are second with seizures estimated to be valued at more than $226 million.
