8 replies to this topic

[Poonie]

Hi all,

I noticed a link under a 'support our advertisers' banner to a website in China (livepopular.com) selling Vibrams for 60% off. Having been stung before by counterfeit Vibrams previously I have no doubt that these ones advertised are counterfeit too - there is a stack of guidance on the net about the huge counterfeit Vibram industry (eg. http://birthdayshoes...five-toed-shoes).

Is it reasonable to expect that the CR forum would only accept advertising from websites selling genuine products...?
I'd really like someone to prove me wrong and vouch for the reliability of the livepopular.com Vibrams, but I'm going to take some serious convincing!

Can the moderators provide some feedback perhaps?

[rohan]

Poonie, on 17 May 2011 - 11:12 AM, said:

Having been stung before by counterfeit Vibrams previously I have no doubt that these ones advertised are counterfeit too

Having had bad felafel before I now believe every felafel to be bad.

[HillsAths1]

Poonie, on 17 May 2011 - 11:12 AM, said:

Hi all,

I noticed a link under a 'support our advertisers' banner to a website in China (livepopular.com) selling Vibrams for 60% off. Having been stung before by counterfeit Vibrams previously I have no doubt that these ones advertised are counterfeit too - there is a stack of guidance on the net about the huge counterfeit Vibram industry (eg. http://birthdayshoes...five-toed-shoes).

Is it reasonable to expect that the CR forum would only accept advertising from websites selling genuine products...?
I'd really like someone to prove me wrong and vouch for the reliability of the livepopular.com Vibrams, but I'm going to take some serious convincing!

Can the moderators provide some feedback perhaps?

I know that I am being cynical in my view here that this is perhaps a rival seller who is concerned that someone is selling "shoes" cheaper than them! There is another thread saying how expensive Vibrams are in Australia and that they can be bought for XXXX somewhere else.

When you look at the value of the Aus dollar against say the US, it is clear that Australians are being taken for a ride, in the past we were told that it was the low Australian dollar that made the prices so high, now it is because Australia has such a small market.

If someone wants to buy almost anything that is portable, it is almost 100% guaranteed that you will be able to get it imported cheaper than what you can go and buy it for from the local shops.

As for counterfeit goods, most of the shoes will be made in the same factories as the real deal, so who cares that you have just bought a pair of Wibrams or a pair of like shoes?

[Poonie]

I couldn't agree with you more about Vibrams costing too much here in Australia. I've got five pairs of them - Classics, KSOs, Bikilas, Treksports, Speeds - and it frustrates me how much I could have saved had I bought them in the US. (On a side note I ran the North Face 100 in the Treksports on the weekend and they were brilliant...)
The KSOs were my second pair and were bought from an online seller advertising amazing discounts on RRP. The packaging was identical, the shoes almost perfect, but a few subtle telltale signs and the fact that they started to fall apart after minimal use revealed them to be too good to be true. A little hunting around revealed the website I bought them from to be dealing in counterfeit products. I have paid full price for all of my others since to at least be sure of what I was getting.
I have nothing to do with selling Vibrams - I guess you can be as cynical as you like - I am simply someone who wears them most of the time and has been stung by counterfeits. I have no doubts that people following the link advertised on the CR forum will get stung as I did. I guess I would at least like the CR forum moderators to be aware of what they are advertising...

[rohan]

Poonie, on 17 May 2011 - 12:08 PM, said:

I have no doubts that people following the link advertised on the CR forum will get stung as I did. I guess I would at least like the CR forum moderators to be aware of what they are advertising...

Why are you so sure in your assertion that the advertiser does not have the real deal?

If you do have proof then forward it to the CR admins.

CR admins are highly unlikely to have the time to launch an investigation into every advertiser.  They are going to presume innocence rather than guilt.
You seem to operate on the basis that Vibrams + China = fraud.

What is the evidence?

[CoolRunning Admin]

There's more than one matter to consider here:

• "I have no doubt that these ones advertised are counterfeit too". You really don't know. You're making a big assumption. For what it's worth, before running the ad CR staff did a web search to see if anything negative would show up. It didn't. The domain name is a few months old, not just hours as are some of the bad site. And unlike some shonky sellers, this one does not pretend that it's other than in China. It's quite open about that.
  
• "Is it reasonable to expect that the CR forum would only accept advertising from websites selling genuine products...?" How are we to know that? Consider also that most of the advertising on the site now is Google AdSense, where we have no idea at all who the advertisers are. Especially given that those ads are targeted. You will see different ads to me.
  
• Are you making the case that no Australian advertiser would sell fake/shonky/'grey import' goods? I'm not aware of it happening, but it's quite possible.
  
• The 'Support Australian Advertisers' title is incorrect and will be changed. It reflects the fact that until recently, only smallish Australian advertisers used those text only ads.

Your concerns about counterfeit goods are real, and should be heeded. Any buyer on the Internet should exercise caution. But there's no basis at all to block this particular advertiser. If the advertiser (or any other) proves to be a bad one, it will indeed be blocked.

[Poonie]

CR Admin,

All fair points.

From a little sleuth work I can collate the following:
From the official US Vibram website (http://www.vibramfiv...pot-a-fake.html): Discounts of 20-50% or greater are almost always counterfeit. Counterfeit shoes also use fabrics, material, or colours which differ from those on official Vibram advertised products.
To provide an example of different shoes on the livepopular.com site, the Red/Black Treksports advertised (http://www.livepopul...oes-ktsm04.html) have a grey and black sole, whereas the Red/Black Treksports sold in both the USA (http://www.vibramfiv...kSport-Mens.htm) and Australia (http://www.adventure...-red-black.html) have all black soles. I don't believe a Red/Black Treksport with grey/black sole was ever produced.

I certainly understand the value of advertisers to the forum and appreciate the massive effort it must take from the administrators to keep it running, and certainly didn't post today to cause unnecessary grief. I simply wanted to point out that I'm not convinced the VFFs advertised in the banner were genuine.

For what it's worth I appreciate the quick response today!

[HillsAths1]

Poonie you make some very valid points, and it is important to note that if you do buy shoes from overseas you will notice that sometimes what may be a white Asics shoe in Australia may well be a blue shoe in the US or Red in UK.

Many of the manufacturers do this as a method of tracking if anyone is selling imported shoes when they are not a licensed distributor.

[damyanos]

I bought some trail shoes from CR advertiser "Race the Planet", shipped from Hong Kong and I'm very impressed. A tracking number was emailed for the package and I'm sure they are real Salomons

I think this is a good thread. Any dodgy company should get shot down pretty quickly, although a few CR's may get burned first.