Skopje/Macedonia – It may come as a surprise when the police present counterfeit models to a brand holder, when original models never existed at all.

However, this is exactly what happened in Skopje, when an alleged counterfeiting factory was raided by the authorities.

Criminals re-branded shoes with fake logos

The police seized unbranded shoes, which were re-branded with fake logos. ‘Additionally, they confiscated models that do not have counterparts in the legitimate product lines of several renowned brands’, says Lukas Drlik, managing director of Vis Probandi.

The investigation unveiled that the perpetrators actually put forth a lot of effort, inventing new models and using sophisticated techniques and machinery, as this video shows.

In addition, the counterfeiters were using a complex distribution strategy. They sold their fakes across the Western Balkan regions and even advertised them online, specifically, on Facebook (see pictures). However, ‘their strength is their weakness at the same time’, Drlik explains, ‘online sales give us the opportunity to trace the evidence back to their factory’.

Factories in Europe growing danger for brand holders

This approach to closing down illegal factories in the EU may become important for more and more brand holders in future. It seems obvious that counterfeiters are targeting more than brand at once.

In Skopje, for example, the criminals had produced, among other things, sports shoes for a couple of famous brands (compare pictures). Vis Probandi has reported about the manufacturing of fakes within European borders before, such as in the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary.

With Vis Probandi’s latest expansion to the south, reaching out to the Balkans, more findings of suspicious manufacturing sites are expected.