The rampant manufacturing of ?unofficial? or fake fan gears during the upcoming ICC World Cup cricket is threatening to blunt the shine out of the official garment makers from Ludhiana.
This is because between the half-dozen Ludhiana-based garment makers, the order is to supply only around 2.5 lakh units of the ?official? fan gear while the estimated market for overall cricket-based fan gears is close to one million units. The balance 7.5 lakh units account for the unofficial or fake fan gears.
In value terms, the unofficial or fake gears are expected to generate Rs 20-25 crore between February to April, while the official gears will account for less than Rs 12 crore.
Ludhiana-based garment makers allege that small hubs around Kolkata, Delhi-NCR and parts of Uttar Pradesh are involved is the manufacture, distribution and sale of ?fake fan gears? at less than half the retail prices of the official gears, thereby causing substantial financial loss to the branded firms who retail them.
Fan gears refer to the T-shirts, track pants and other gears in sync with the official uniforms of the 14 participating teams in the World Cup. Kishore Biyani’s Future group, the sole rights holder of the official World Cup fan gear has placed orders for 2.5 lakh unit of gears to a handful of trusted Ludhiana firms including Ankita International, Kudu Knit among others.
Under the licence agreement, these firms undertake the contract manufacturing of the official fan gears for the leading brands like Reebok, Nike, Adidas, Puma among others. On the basis of retail pricing, these official fan gears are sold anywhere between Rs 599 to Rs 1,999 and above.
?Our job is to manufacture and deliver the contract. Leading brands lose money because of fake fan gears. We only stand to lose our credibility as people know these quality garments are made in Ludhiana,? says Arun Dhand, promoter, Ankita International, which has been supplying the fan gears since 2003 World Cup.
A garment supplier from Delhi who is sourcing a mix of official and fake fan gears blamed the big gap between the supply and demand of such special-event gears. ?There is a big demand for owning these special T-shirts, like the ones used in IPL or World Cup. No one company should hold any specific rights for these events,? the supplier said.
?In Ludhiana, we sell the official T-shirts between Rs 199 to Rs 399. At the retail level, these are sold at three to four times the price. But the fake gears can be bought at anywhere between Rs 200-250 in major towns. Straight loss for branded sports companies,? a veteran in the garment business said.