Courtesy of Nike
- Nike is teaming up with US Customs and Border Protection to prevent fakes from entering the country.
- Nike is donating proprietary technology which will be able to identify counterfeit sneakers.
- CBP says it seized more than $1.3 billion worth of goods, had they been real merchandise, last year.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Nike will work with US Customers and Border Protection to crack down on counterfeit goods entering the United States, the agency said Thursday.
CBP said it seized 26,503 shipments containing counterfeit goods in fiscal year 2020 that "would have been worth nearly $1.3 billion had they been genuine.
CBP says that counterfeit goods pose a great risk to the US economy.
Quartz reported in 2020 that an international counterfeiting ring was using "an elaborate web of fictitious company names, bogus paperwork, phony email addresses, and burner phones" to ship $472 million worth of goods in the US, had they actually been real merchandise.
Authorities were able to track down the sellers by using cooperating witnesses and undercover agents, the site reported.
Counterfeit shoes are also a big problem for resellers.
Insider previously reported that some sneaker resellers are using AI technology to authenticate sneakers. The authentication process is as easy as placing the shoe into a machine, and within minutes software is able to identify if a shoe is real or not with a series of photographs.
It is unclear how CBP will identify fake shoes. Nike did not respond to a request for comment.
"As criminal organizations use proceeds from counterfeit sales to fund other illegal activity, our partnerships help strengthen our border security posture through innovation and resource optimization," Diane Sabatino, CBP's executive assistant commissioner of field operations, said in a press release. "Our partnerships with stakeholders are vital to CBP's enforcement mission and continued success in protecting U.S. businesses and consumers from counterfeit goods."