The green Nigerian jerseys hanging outside a little sewing shop in downtown Lagos Island look just like the real thing, complete with the national team crest, the embroidered Adidas logo, and even the popular NFF logo over the right shoulder.
The N500 price tag betrays the shirt for what it is—a very convincing fake. Femi Olatunbosun, a tailor, makes the jerseys by hand on his Singer brand sewing machine, copying the patterns from an original jersey he got somewhere. He’s not the only tailor in Lagos or other parts of vast Nigeria making counterfeit jerseys for the World Cup, but he’s earned a strong following for the quality of his work, the texture of the jerseys he designs and his prices. He will sell a jersey for as little as N500, if it’s ordered in bulk. Nigerian club officials patronize him yearly for the ‘construction’ of their jerseys whilst they inflate the cost as if imported.
“They are almost indistinguishable from the real jerseys,” the 38-year-old Olatunbosun said, “though a trained eye will be able to tell the difference.”
In the lead up to the 2010 World Cup, the counterfeit merchandise business boomed. He sold no less than 5,000 copies of the Nigerian national team jersey.
South African police said they seized more than $13 million worth of fake merchandise since the beginning of the year in the build-up to the recently concluded world cup. FIFA says more than 100 cases involving counterfeit World Cup goods were taken to court.
Puma spent millions of dollars and three years developing World Cup jerseys which feature special fabrics to keep sweat away from players’ bodies, as well as a construction based on sprinters’ outfits that reduces wind resistance.
The Germany-based company kitted four of the six African teams that participated in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and saw the first World Cup in Africa as a major opportunity to cement their brand’s association with football on the continent, Puma soccer marketing manager Filip Trulsson said.
While official team shirts can retail for $88 in Europe, Trulsson said the company has adopted a regional system that will tailor the price of merchandise to income levels and purchasing power in different parts of Africa.
At a sports apparel store in Abidjan recently, official Ivory Coast jerseys were being sold for 39,900 francs ($75), which is more than what the average Ivorian makes in a month. With a wildly popular national team, the demand for cheaper jerseys in Ivory Coast has spurred the counterfeit industry.
The fake jersey business isn’t limited to World Cup teams.
An array of European club jerseys cover the walls ofOlatunbosun’s tiny shop, where five sewing machines are run by five apprentices and four tailors for 12 hours per day. Many times, they sleep over night working on the jerseys. Arsenal, Barcelona, Manchester United, Olympic Marseille and Chelsea are the most popular jerseys.
After buying his fabrics at a nearby wholesaler many times on credit, Olatunbosun, a graduate of Sociology from the University of Ilorin, cuts the patterns and has all the embroidery done by a set of two apprentices before the shirt is sewn together by another set of apprentices. Then comes the final step of ironing on falsified Puma labels on the inside of the shirt.
“There’s one other guy who makes Super Eagles jerseys in the neighborhood, but he can’t do the complicated embroidery or the iron-on decals that we design on the computer,” Olatunbosun said. Asked how he came into tailoring, he said, I am Ijesha. My father is a tailor. We grew up working with him. When I graduated in 2000 and for years I cannot get white collar job, I went back to my childhood job, took over my dad’s equipment and here I am today.
It was in 2002, Olatunbosun bought a sport jersey fabric and made a shirt for himself. He explained, “I actually bought it in innocence and later a friend, Suraj Bakinde, now in the United Kingdom wanted one for himself. I did it. That was it, friends who saw it on us started making demands and since then, it became a trade.
Asked if he has ever run into trouble for his counterfeiting, Olatunbosun said, “It is not as if I do not know this practice is illegal. No one has ever come near me on that. Two, is this not better than stealing or being an armed robber? At least, I have a string of businesses whose turnover are based on the activities I am involved in. we created employment and add value to the local economy.”
While my interview was still on, a group of teenagers, as well as, some well-to-do guys flooded into the shop, talking loudly and disturbing the tailors hard at work. They were there to pick up a batch of shirts they ordered a previous week. Olatunbosun pulled out their neatly packed shirts covered in sealed transparent nylon. Monies changed hands and all parties happy.
How much does he make on a monthly basis, he quipped, “initially, it was a seasonal market but in the last three years, the pressure has mounted so much that many times I have to get some of the apprentices who had gotten freedom from here to give me lending hands. In short, I make a net profit in the region of N53,000 per month after removing all invested costs.”
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